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Brand Positioning
Subject: BRAND POSITIONING
Credits: 4
SYLLABUS
General Introduction
Brand Positioning; Consumer’s Perceptual Space; Positioning; Perceptual Mapping; Positioning: Rooted in
Product Features; The Pursuit of Differential Advantage; Category Related Positioning;
Various Facets of Brand Positioning
Symbols by Which We Live and Buy: Positioning with Non Functional Values; Brand Personality; Advertising:
Introduction and Significance; Brand Building Advertising; Brand Tracking.
Brand Equity and Franchising Objectives
Rules and Risks of Brand Extension; Brand Equity; Franchising; Brand Mapping and Extension; Reading
Minds: Research Techniques for Brand Positioning; New Product Opportunities.
Suggested Readings:
1. Brand Positioning: Strategies for Competitive Advantage, Subroto Sengupta, Tata McGraw Hill
2. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Ries, Tata McGraw-Hill.
3. Brand Positioning, Martin Christopher, Butterworth-heinemann.
BRAND POSITIONING
CONTENT
Lesson No.
Topic
Page No.
General Introduction
Lesson 1
Brand Positioning
1
Lesson 2
Consumer’s Perceptual Space:
4
Lesson 3
Positioning: of what stuff is it made?
7
Lesson 4
Perceptual Mapping:
9
Lesson 5
Positioning is Rooted in Product Features
12
Lesson 6
The Pursuit of Differential Advantage
16
Lesson 7
What Am I?
18
Lesson 8
For Whom Am I?
26
Lesson 9
Why Me?
Various Facets of Brand Positioning
28
Lesson 10
Symbols by Which We Live and Buy
30
Lesson 11
Brand Personality
33
Lesson 12
A Fresh Look at Advertising
36
Lesson 13
How to Create Brand Building Advertising?
37
Brand Equity and Franchising Objectives
Lesson 14
Stretch Your Brand - But Watch its Limits
39
Lesson 15
Brand Extension
45
Lesson 16
Reading Minds: Research Techniques for Brand Positioning
49
Lesson 17
New Product Opportunities
51
Case Studies
iii
53
UNIT 1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
LESSON 1
BRAND POSITIONING
BRAND POSITIONING
A brand is a product from a known source (organization). The
name of the organization can also serve as a brand. The brand
value reflects how a product’s name, or company name, is
perceived by the marketplace, whether that is a target audience
for a product or the marketplace in general (clearly these can have
different meanings and therefore different values). It is important to understand the meaning and the value of the brand (for
each target audience) in order to develop an effective marketing
mix, for each target audience. The value of the brand for a webbased company may have heightened importance due to the
intangible nature of the web.
What is positioning
Every brand has to have a strategic platform. One half of that
platform is created by carefully formulating a distinct brand
personality, which makes the identity of the brand unique. The
other half of the strategic brand platform is positioning.
Positioning is critical to brand building because it is responsible
for projecting the brand identity and creating the perception and
image of the brand in people’s minds. In other words,
positioning is the process of offering the brand to the consumer. It is positioning that makes the brand appear to be
different and better than all competing brands. The key points
to note about positioning are:
• it is a strategic, not a tactical, activity
• it is aimed at developing a strategic, sustainable competitive
advantage
• it is concerned with managing perceptions
• brand image and reputation are the result of the positioning
process
Positioning carving out a market niche for your firm. This may
be accomplished by searching out unique marketing advantages,
seeking new market segments that competitors are not cultivating, or developing new approaches to old problems. Your
positioning should be based on a real (e.g., lower cost, superior
quality) or intangible (e.g., company reputation) competitive
advantage.
Product positioning is an important strategy for achieving
differential advantage. Positioning reflects the “place” a product
occupies in a market or segment. A successful position has
characteristics that are both differentiating and important to
consumers.
Every product has some sort of position — whether intended
or not. Positions are based upon consumer perceptions, which
may or may not reflect reality. A position is effectively built by
communicating a consistent message to consumers about the
product and where it fits into the market — through advertising, brand name, and packaging
Positioning is inextricably linked with market segmentation.
You can’t define a good position until you have divided the
market into unique segments and selected your target segments.
Three key research issues must be addressed:
1.What is your current position?
• What does the “space” look like what are the most
important dimensions in the category?
• What are the other products in that space and where are they?
• What are the gaps, unfilled positions or “holes” in the
category?
• Which dimensions are most important?
• How do these attitudes differ by market segment?
2. What position do you want to have?
Some of the positioning opportunities for a product include:
• Finding an unmet consumer need or at least one that’s not
being adequately met now by competition
• Identifying a product strength that is both unique &
important
• Determining how to correct a product weakness and thereby
enhance a product’s appeal. (e.g., legitimate “new &
improved”)
• Changing consumer usage patterns to include different or
additional uses for the product
• Identifying market segments, which represent the best
targets for a product
3. How do you create a new positioning?
Creating a new positioning can come from two sources
• Physical product differences
• Communications finding a memorable and meaningful way
to describe the product (e.g., calling 7-Up the “Uncola”). As
Ries and Trout point out, “Positioning is not what you do
to a product; positioning is what you do to the mind of the
prospect.”
1
BRAND POSITIONING
Brand positioning
It is the “added value” or augmented elements that determine a
brand’s positioning in the market place.
Positioning can be defined as follows:
Positioning is how a product appears in relation to other
products in the market
Its components: The Brand Positioning Component Involves
Identifying Perceptions That Your Brand Should Own In The
Minds Of Its Target Market.
The process recommended for developing a compelling brand
positioning involves establishing consensus on key brand
attributes with internal client stakeholders in a workshop
setting. In the workshop, exercises incorporating a variety of
sensory elements are utilized to stimulate discussion and
ultimately identify critical brand attributes. Results from the
workshop will drive the brand through all points of contact
with key stakeholders.
before they go to bed. By appealing to these various segments,
we have not stepped away from the central positioning.
Market segmentation
To compete successfully in today’s volatile and competitive
business markets, mass marketing is no longer a viable option
for most companies. Marketers must attack niche markets that
exhibit unique needs & wants. Market segmentation is the
process of partitioning markets into groups of potential
customers with similar needs or characteristics who are likely to
exhibit similar purchase behavior
Market segmentation is the foundation on which all other
marketing actions can be based. It requires a major commitment
Product features:
After formulated the objectives, customer and competitor
segments
Now it is time to determine the specific features to be included
in your product.
• The intrinsic product features such as size, color, packaging
and design.
• Developing different features for segments is appealing for
services but expensive for manufacturers.
Differential advantages:
One of the most important strategic decisions:
If not low cost producer the firm must be able to
differentiatebut must have the following 3 characteristics.
• It should generate customer value (difference must matterred computer).
• The increased value must be perceived by the customer (intell
inside).
• The advantage should be difficult to copy.
How many positions can a brand have?
Positioning is the outward expression of a brand, and the
reality, therefore, is that a brand can only have one true position.
As positioning presents the identity and personality of the
brand to the outside world, a multiple personality would seem
odd at the very least, and at worst, schizophrenic. Consumers
make brands famous for many reasons, of which the most
important is that they come to trust brands as friends.
That is why deciding on the brand-positioning strategy is such
an important part of brand strategy. However, there are ways in
which the brand may be presented differently to various target
audiences. The success of this depends on an accurate judgment
of the segments that exist in the market, and the segments’
precise needs and wants.
For example,
a chocolate-based drink may have a central positioning of
nutrition. This could be presented as an energy-giving drink for
active people, a dietary supplement for the elderly who have
trouble eating many solid foods, an essential growth supplement for youngsters, and a relaxing drink for tired people
2
by management to customer-oriented planning, research,
implementation & control.
The overall objective of using a market segmentation strategy is
to improve your company’s competitive position and better
serve the needs of your customers. Some specific objectives may
include increased sales, improved market share and enhanced
image.
There are four major benefits of market segmentation analysis
and strategy:
• Designing responsive products to meet the needs of the
marketplace
• Developing effective and cost-efficient promotional tactics &
campaigns
• Gauging your company’s market position — how your
company is perceived by its customers and potential
customers relative to the competition
• Fine-tuning current marketing strategies
A three-step process is used to develop a market segmentation
strategy:
Segment Identification — determining a given number of
homogeneous market segments based on selected segmentation variables and criteria. Segments should be
customer-focused, a justifiable size, distinguishable, accessible,
accountable & profitable.
Market Selection — selecting one or more groups to target for
marketing activity. It is impossible to pursue every market
opportunity so you must make strategic choices based on
BRAND POSITIONING
customer needs, competitive opportunities, corporate objectives, and your firm’s financial, technical & marketing resources.
Positioning — carving out a market niche for your firm. This
may be accomplished by searching out unique marketing
advantages, seeking new market segments that competitors are
not cultivating, or developing new approaches to old problems.
Your positioning should be based on a real (e.g., lower cost,
superior quality) or intangible (e.g., company reputation)
competitive advantage.
Notes
3
LESSON 2
CONSUMER’S PERCEPTUAL SPACE
BRAND POSITIONING
In marketing terms, there is no such thing as a product or
service which exists by itself in space, independent of the
consumer. For a product to exist, it-must find a place in an
individual consumer’s perception of the world of products
around him or her. And this perception is subjective, governed
by the individual consumer’s values, beliefs, needs, experience
and environment.
This is the core thought behind brand positioning-the idea that
each brand (if at all noticed) occupies a particular point or space
in the individual consumer’s mind, a point which is determined
by that consumer’s perception of the brand in question and in
its relation to other brands.
Renting mind space:
One’s strategy must therefore be to create a perception for his
brand in the prospect’s mind so that it stands apart from
competing brands and approximates much more closely to
what the consumer wants. One must cover that space in the
consumer’s mind as if they had won a long-term lease and
always keep out ‘squatters’. They must find a strong position in
that mind and sit on it.
Find a strong position and sit on it:
In 1982 when Food Specialities Ltd (associated with Nestle)
con-sidered launching Maggi instant noodles, the company had
the option of choosing from several alternative positions. The
product could have been launched, for the sake of argument, as
a means of cooking tasty Chinese dishes at home, or as a ‘TV
dinner’, or as a ‘mini-meal’
Through consumer research the company felt that the most
proritable position would be as a tasty, instant snack, made at
home and initially aimed at children. The target market was the
in-home segment of the very substantial snack category. This
positioning decision automatically determined the competition
which included all snack products in general. These would
range from ready-to-eat snacks- biscuits, wafers and peanuts- to
ready prepared snacks such as samosas. All were bought-out
items.
However, such snacks were positioned at some distance from
maggi noodles; they were not its direct competition was
occupied by snacks prepared at home, such as papad, fried
peanuts, sandwiches and pakora.
Maggi noodles was launched in delhi in January 1983 and it
became an overnight success. The annual target for that market
was increased from 50 to 600 tonnes. Magi noodles, as market
result show, found a vacant, strong position and “sat on it” as
the ‘the good to eat, fast to cook’ anytime snack
Same product, many positions:
A very striking and highly successful positioning and repositioning strategy is that of Milkmaid Condensed Milk. The
product and the pack have remained unchanged but we observe
4
four distinct position-ing strategies as expressed in its advertising.
Years ago Milkmaid was advertised as a creamer or whitener for
tea and coffee. If you read the fine print you will see that it
spans several positions. But of course it is the illustration and
headline that. really determine the position which the consumer
will give the brand in her mind.
Much later, we see yet another position for Milkmaid-product
and pack unchanged. This position is “the tastiest milk made”.
Notice the jug of milk which comes from the condensed
Milkmaid mixed with water. This position was visualized as it
had relevance at a time when fresh milk was in short supply in
some parts of India.
Once again, we see the portents of yet another position...this
time, positioning Milkmaid as a topper.
And then, through a natural evolution-backed by consumer
re-search and sound .marketing Judgement-we see Milkmaid’s
present position: Milkmaid for dessert recipes. In due course,
the pack design was smartened up and changed to reflect the
‘recipe’ or culinary position; the label depicts a dessert, gives the
recipe on the reverse side, and announces a ‘Free Recipe Booklet
From the time of the dessert recipe positioning (1982),
Milkmaid achieved a sales volume increase of 116% by 1988.
Sales growth has been relatively steady year after year (an average
growth of about 20% annually), suggesting that more households are responding to this position. It is significant that even
in traditional milk-shortage areas, Milkmaid usage now is largely
in line with the culinary (dessert) positioning. This implies that
housewives who may have earlier per-ceived Milkmaid as a
1
BRAND POSITIONING
4
2 it a different place in their
substitute for milk, have now given
‘frame of reference.’
See the pictures given of positioning of milk maid.
in the consumer’s mind, and its relation to other brands.
Essentially, positioning is less what we do to the product and
more what we do to the consumer’s perception of the product.
Product position and position:
This is how an article in the Journal of Advertising Research
defines ‘positioning’ :
Product position refers to a brand’s objective (functional)
attributes in relation to other brands. It is a characteristic of the
physical product and its functional features.
Position, on the other hand, refers to a brand’s subjective (or
per-ceived) attributes in relation to competing products.
This perceived image of the brand belongs not to the product
but rather is the property of the consumer’s mental perceptions
and in some instances, could differ widely from a brand’s true
physical characteristics.
The perceived image of the product belongs not to the product
but rather is the property of the consumer’s mental perceptions.
This suggests that the advertiser’s main concern should be with
that subjective perception of his brand as seen by the target
consumer. Creating the desired perception and occupying a
particular point or space in the target consumer’s mind is the
essence of positioning or repositioning strategy as the example
of milkmaid.
3
Multiple definition:
Positioning is a comparatively new marketing concept, unlike
‘consumer seg-mentation’, for instance, which is an old friend
and clearly stands for the same idea to most of the people.
There are always these criteria of segmentation :
• Demographic
5
BRAND POSITIONING
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Usage volume
Loyalty patterns
Social class
Life style
Attitudes
Interests and opinions
Personality characteristic
And the like.
To some positioning is the proposition or benefit of the
product. To others it is its image, or perhaps its status in the
market relative to the brand leader. And some equate it with
‘brand personality’.
For our purpose, we will not draw any distinction
between ‘product position’ and ‘position’ and Will use the
terms interchangeably. Since we are mainly concerned with
brands, this text will usually refer to . ‘brand positioning’.
‘Product’ and ‘brand’ for our purpose will also be used
interchangeably, except when the context makes it clear that by
‘product’ we are referring to a product class or category.
And so, to a comprehensive defnition.
1. The position of a brand is the perception it brings about in
themind of a target consumer 2. This perception reflects the essence of the brand in terms of
itsfunctional and non-functional benefits in the judgement
of that consumer.
3. It is relative to the perception, held by that consumer, of
com-peting brands, all of which can be represented as points
or positions in his or her perceptual space and together,
make up a product class.
Notes
6
Now we have looked at ‘positioning’ from a practical and
applied perspective in the previous unit.
Now have a look on key theoretical and conceptual issues that
are involved in the three point definition mentioned in the
previous unit.
Prof. Volney Stefflre described techniques that could be used to
measure consumer’s perceptions of judged similarity between
brands and products and thus give them a ‘position in a given
market’ he described research which showed that brands and
products which were judged to be highly similar- that is were
close in perceptual space- also exhibit a high degree of competition and substitution.
Stefflre pointed out in his research that how these techniques
could be used to prospect for ‘holes’ or ‘blank space’ for new
products class. They could help a multi product firm to develop
new products that would Position them in the market in a
manner that makes them substitutable for and competitive
with competitors’ brands while not cannibalizing the firm’s
own related products.
According to Barnett, new product introduction becomes the
search for a position in the market structure for a product,
which is preferred over the products currently available.
Four components:
The definition that we have given in the previous chapter points
to The four basic components of the positioning concept:
1. Product class or the structure of the market in which one’s
brand will compete.
2. Consumer segmentation.
3. Consumer perception of one’s brand in relation to
competitors, which leads to perceptual mapping.
4. The benefits offered by the brand. These benefits may also be
expressed as attributes or dimensions along which brands
are‘fitted’ to represent consumer judgments.
These four components of the positioning concept are so
closely interwoven that they must be taken together when we
consider the positioning of a brand.
1. Product class:
A product class or product market can be defined as the set of
products and brands, which are perceived as substitutes to
satisfy some specific
consumer need. The term, product category, is also used
interchangeably with product class and product market. it is
necessary to distinguish one product market from another.
Research in India has shown that as middle-income and
organized sector blue-collar families earn more and move up on
the social ladder, they are faced at bonus time with the choice of
buying a TV set or a fridge.
We cannot put the positioning concept to work unless we get to
grips with its very first component--
the product class: Which other brands must our brand contend
with in order to lodge itself in the target
consumer’s perceptual space? In other words, what is the
structure of the market or set of substitutes amongst which
our brand is to be positioned?
Ex:1
Consumer judgments of similarity and substitution can form
the basis for defining a product market or product category and
are likely to be more reliable than categories defined by industry
classifications. In India, low-cost detergent powders would
undoubtedly be grouped with higher-priced powders in the
category of ‘washing powders’. There is little doubt, however,
that these low-cost powders such as Nirma, Wheel and
Hippolin have also been positioned by consumers against the
traditional (oil-based) laundry soaps and bars and have been
perceived W them as substitutes for such laundry soap.
Ex:2
It is not difficult to presume that a telegraphic message is, in
some ways, positioned against and competes with a long
distance telephone call. However, research into consumers’
judgments of similarity may show that telegraphic deliveries
compete more-that is, are perceived as a closer substitute of‘speedpost’ or courier services than of trunk calls.
Ex :3
DIOR is well known for its innovative set of watches with
numerals in any form n style...its a must buy for fashion
conscious ...it has mass appeal n class appeal...it offers a wide
range from metals , leather straps , bracelet forms for the
mesdames....it has a sober n suave yet wildly sexy appeal...
be it any products ,DIOR has created a standard for itself...
people might find it unreasonable to comply with the price
factor but then it stands to it’s name and service and its
originality deserves that LVMH is present in the perfumes and
cosmetics sector through the great French houses of Christian
dior, Guerlain, Givenchy and Kenzo
i take the liberty of saying that a dior watch is a smart watch
which makes the hand look smarter but it caters only elite class
in the context of Indian consumers. Although products range
from apparel to accessories.
Pros :Finishing par excellence
Cons : Pricing
In South-East Asia where noodles mean big business, they are
consumed as a meal. In India FSL deliberately chose the product
class of home-made snacks which to position Maggi Noodles.
In our consuming culture, noodles as a meal would not be
readily accepted as a substitute for rice or roti. Market growth
would need a change in basic and deeply ingrained food habits-a
long haul. On the other hand, housewives would be much
more willing to experiment with a snack that takes ‘twominutes’ to make.
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BRAND POSITIONING
LESSON 3
POSITIONING: OF WHAT STUFF IS IT MADE?
BRAND POSITIONING
A brand manager must be ever aware that he may suddenly find
himself face-to-face with an infiltrator from across the historical
border. For instance, Pond’s Cold Cream’s comfortable position
seems to have been suddenly challenged by a brand from
another product class altogether. The first appearance of
Lakme’s Winter Care Lotion ad may well have come as a rude
shock- being described as a ‘greasy cold cream’ by this violator
of traditional boundaries which claims, to boot, that it is
“coldcream + moisturiser . in one” and is “so much more than
cold cream”.
Have a look at the Picture of lakme
Fixed Deposit for those investors who prize security along with
a moderate return. You position an ‘Un-fixed Deposit’ for
similar investors but who, in addition, would prefer easyliquidity for their deposits without undue loss of return
If you wanted to broaden the market for Bank Fixed Deposits
by appealing also to those investors who favour high returns
and are willing to shoulder risks, your only hope is to position
Bank Fixed Deposits in terms of a ‘portfolio’ of investments
in which high-return and high-risk investments are balanced
with moderate-return, no-risk investments, plus tax benefits.
In fact, either management judgement or research can lead to
defining yet another segment of investors as those who want
the best of both the worlds-a high return with low or ‘managed’ risk. Un Trust’s ‘Masters hare’ was positioned for just
such a segment, followed by Canara Bank’s ‘Canshares’ and
State Bank’s ‘Magnum’ share: What, you may wish to debate, is
the difference in the positioning. these three ‘brands’ of
investment? What is the ‘distance’ between them as perceived
by investors?
Ex: 1
Dior caters to the women segment with a touch of feminism
In contrast to Chanel for example, Dior established a romantic
and very feminine look, which emphasised luxury rather than
comfort. Galliano, as Dior’s successor, creates an equally
feminine style, blending today’s freedom of expression with the
reminiscence of past opulence.
Ex:2
Maternity wear market
Research shows estimates of $1.2 billion in U.S. sales alone last
year. It definitely offers profit potential, particularly because so
few companies are servicing its consumers. Target signed on
former Vogue editor and top maternity designer Liz Lange to
create an exclusive line for the retailer. Nike also signed her to
create its line of maternity workout wear. Both Gap and Old
Navy are creating lines for new mothers to be, a move that will
increase its positioning as a retailer for everyone in your family.
2 Consumer segmentation:
This includes What is the profile of the consumers whom our
brand will serve and what are their needs?.
one must be familiar with target marketing, that is directing all
marketing, promotional and media efforts for a brand to a
chosen, sharply defined group of consumers. Positioning
theory marks its departure by placing emphasis on the target
consumer’s perceptions of brands in relation to other brands. But
its main focus, like all good marketing theory and practice, is on
the target consumer’s charac-teristics, needs and expectations.
Since we are inevitably faced with complex and heterogeneous
markets, this means a multitude of con-sumer segments.
One cannot think of ‘positioning’ a product or a brand except
in relation to a particular target segment. You position a Bank
8
BRAND POSITIONING
LESSON 4
PERCEPTUAL MAPPING
When marketers and advertising professionals began to display
their interest in the perceptions of target consumer segments,
the next natural step was to measure those perceptions. This
constituted an open invitation to mathematical psychologists to
move in-which they did! Today, one cannot play the positioning
game without ‘perceptual mapping.
What perceptual mapping does is to represent consumer
percep-tions-in (usually) two-dimensional space so that the
manager can readily see where his own brand is positioned in
the mind of his prospect and in relation to other brands. The
concept of the consumer’s perceptual space forms the theoretical
basis of positioning. It is this concept which distinguishes
positioning and sets it apart as a major contribution to
marketing theory and practice. Perceptual mapping helps to
make this concept operational.
Although the judgements of managers, sales staff or the trade
may be used to plot brand positions in the consumer’s
perceptual space, it is not advisable to substitute them for
consumer judgements, which can only be obtained through
field research.
Consumers are asked to rate a set of brands along given
attributes or benefits or they may be asked merely to judge, by
pairs, how similar or dissimilar the brands are.
The former technique is used for Factor Analysis and the latter
technique is used in Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). Both
concep-tually and operationally, these two techniques are well
suited for marketing management’s use in perceptual mapping.
Developed by mathematical psychologists, the MDS technique
provides a repre-sentation of consumers’ perceptions of brands
as points in a geometric space whose axes (attributes/dimensions) can be described as frames of reference along which
brands are compared by consumers.
Perceptual mapping techniques identify the underlying dimensions that differentiate consumer perceptions of products and
the posi-tions of existing products on the dimensions.
Analytically, the primary positioning tools are called perceptual
maps. Perceptual maps, which can be derived using market
research methodologies such as semantic and multi-dimensional scaling, are based - as the name implies - on customers
perceptions of the benefits that brands deliver. The maps are
visual representations of competitive brands (or products)
plotted along dimensions that capture the most important
attributes in the purchase process. The maps reveal brands’
positions relative to each other, and relative to customers’ ideal
points.
For example, the illustrative perceptual map below plots
brands (the letters in squares) along 2-dimensions: price and
quality.
Brand A is perceived to be relatively high priced with high
quality; brand F is low quality and low price (perhaps an
economy brand); and brand G is in the unstable position of
being perceived to be low quality, but high price. The circled
numbers indicate the ideal points - combinations of price and
quality - that are desired by each of 3 illustrative segments
(good, better, best). Since price is along the vertical axis, this
perceptual map is a variation of a value map.
Proximity rules on perceptual maps. In general, a brand will
accrue most of its sales from the market segments with ideal
points closest to where the brand is positioned (e.g. brand A is
likely to draw most from segment 3) and, all else equal, brands
positioned closer to ideal points will capture a disproportionate
share of that market segment’s sales (e.g. F should outperform
C is segment 1).
Strategic & tactical implications
Of course, customer perceptions may, or may not match the
objective realities. Meeting the objective performance criteria is
usually necessary but not sufficient. That is, a product may
meet objective performance criteria (e.g. can be validated by
laboratory tests), but a company only “gets credit” if customers
perceive that the product delivers the benefits that they are
seeking.
Assuming that a product is designed to the proper marketdriven specifications and “made to spec”, promotional
programs, like advertising campaigns, may be required to:
(a) Close any gaps between the favorable positive objective
realities and inaccurate customer perceptions
(b) Amplify the perceived importance of any attributes on
which the brand is competitively closest to customers’
requirements
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BRAND POSITIONING
(c) Diminish the perceived importance of any attributes on
which the brand misses customers’ requirements.
Market Research Methodologies
A variety of market research methods are used to compile
perceptual maps. The primary techniques are semantic scaling,
multidimensional scaling, and conjoint measurement.
AnExample:
Consider the perceptual map below which summarizes how a
group of customers views the beer market (Moore and
Pessemier 1993). In this map, the perceived distance (dissimilarity) between Budweiser and Miller is about the same as the
perceived distance between Coors and Michelob. Further, Beck’s
and Heinekin are perceived to be the closest pair among this set
of brands.
In looking at the vectors, note that as you move in a northeast
direction from the origin, the beers increase in their popularity
with men. Budweiser is the most popular with men, and Old
Milwaukee Light is the least popular with men.
Budweiser (and then Beck’s) is the farthest along the northeast
direction. To see this most clearly, drop perpendicular lines from
the point denoted as Budweiser and Beck to the vector denoted
“popular with men.”
Likewise, if you drop a perpendicular line from Old Milwaukee
Light to this vector if it were extended in the southwest
direction, you will see that it is the least popular beer with men.
Customer perceptions of these beers along each of the
attributes can be interpreted in the same manner.
Note also that the horizontal axis (in the east direction) is most
closely associated with attributes “premium,” “dining out,” and
“special occasions.” In the west direction, the horizontal axis is
most closely associated with the attributes “on a budget” and
“good value.” Thus, the horizontal axis (the west to east
direction) indicates an underlying dimension of “budgetpremium,” along which customers seem to characterize their
perceptions of the differences between these beers. This map
captures some of the significant factors defining the competitive
structure of the beer market.
We can draw several other conclusions from this map:
• The clusters of beers such as Beck’s and Heineken help to
identify (sub)categories of beers that may be different from
the way that the brand managers define their competitors.
• Michelob is located between the “Heavy” beers and the
“Light” beers. If its advertising positions it as a ‘midstrength’ beer, it has a differentiated position; otherwise it is
likely to be regarded as a ‘nothing’ beer.
• Old Milwaukee Light has very little direct competition (no
other brand is near its location), indicating potential
opportunity for a new beer positioned in this quadrant (if
there is a large enough segment of customers in this
location). To be positioned in this quadrant, a beer needs to
be pale in color and low priced. For experienced beer drinkers
this is probably not a good combination of attributes. For a
novice beer drinker, this combination may be more suitable.
Thus, a new brand targeted to new beer drinkers may choose
a name that better reflects its benefits for this segment of
consumers.
Whether or not a beer is popular with women does not
indicate anything about whether it will be popular with men
(these two attributes are perpendicular to each other). Thus,
although Beck’s and Budweiser are equally popular with men,
among women, Beck’s is more popular than Budweiser.
4 Attributes and benefits:
The physical existence of a brand is no assurance that it has a
position in the target consumer’s mind. To enter that coveted
territory-the consumer’s perceptual space-and to secure a
‘position’ there, the brand must satisfy his question: “What’s in
it for me?” It must offer a benefit which is of importance to
him. This is elementary. So, when we talk of brand attributes,
we must remember that these are the manufacturer’s views of
the brand. The consumer’s frame of reference requires that
those manufacturer’s claims or brand attributes be translated
into consumer benefits in order to map consumer percep-tions.
Thus, when we talk of positioning a brand with reference to an
attribute or when we ask a consumer to rate a brand along an
attribute, we must reinterpret that attribute as a meaningful
consumer benefit.
EX :1
A perceptual map of the Beer market, showing (among other
things) that Budweiser is the most popular beer with men
while Old Milwaukee Light is the least popular with men. The
map summarizes customer evaluations of beer on 13 attributes
into two dimensions: (1) budget-premium and (2) light-heavy.
Source: Moore and Pessemier 1993, p. 145.
10
Blue detergent powders gradually edged out the perceived
impor-tance of ‘blues: in the Indian washing products market.
The comeback of Robin Blue for the modern housewife as
Robin Liquid might be linked in the manufacturer’s view to the
fact that it has features or attributes such as a ‘flourescer’ and
‘ultramarine’. But these at-tributes can enter the housewife’s
Ex: 2
French designer Hedi Slimane will stay on as menswear designer
for Christian Dior through 2006, and will also take over as
creative director for men’s fragrances, according to company
chief Sidney Toledano.
The announcement that Slimane has signed a new three-year
deal puts to rest the recent rumors that Slimane would take
charge of another label, either for French luxury goods firm
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton or for another group.
“I’m very happy about this contract renewal,” Toledano told
AFP, noting that Slimane was en route to New York to
supervise the construction of a new Dior Hommes boutique,
expected to open this autumn.
Since the arrival of Slimane, the former protege of Yves Saint
Laurent, at the helm of Dior’s menswear division, sales have
jumped significantly - by more than 40 percent last year,
according to Toledano.
The label is currently developing a men’s cosmetics line, an
activity in which Slimane will play a key role, Toledano said. So
slimane played the role of brand attributes and benefits.
Where we are-where we should be:
It is not enough that we plot the existing positions of brands
along certain dimensions - brand attributes and benefits. This,
by itself, is a passive act. It tells us where we are but not where
we should be and neither can we judge whether we are where we
should be.
For this we need to plot not only consumer perceptions but
also the preferences of a given consumer segment in a particular
category or product market. Consumers can express such
preferences only in terms of benefits: to what degree they are
obtaining a specific benefit from existing brands; how important this benefit is to them; whether there is some benefit which
they are missing; whether they would prefer to obtain a specific
benefit in greater or lesser measure. Such preferences are also
termed ‘ideal points’ when plotted on a perceptual map.
Let us consider at this stage the purposes of plotting such
preferred or ideal positions. And let us consider by way of
example, the premium toilet soap market.
Preference mapping:
The brand manager for Margo bath soap has a defined consumer segment in mind: a consumer in the middle-income
group, who values a bath soap for the good things it does for
his skin, much more than its cosmetic properties or fagrance.
Such a consumer is also thought to value traditional herbal
ingredients which have proven goodness like Neem. brings out
the essential character of Margo as seen by this consumer ”Pretty ugly? Pretty good.”
The brand manager can judge if his marketing efforts have
brought the perceived position of Margo closer to the preferred
or ideal position of his target segment. In this case, what
actions should he consider? How would you evaluate his
positioning strategy for Margo as seen in the new campaign he
has released, presenting it to the consumer as the ‘skin-friendly
soap’ and the face-lift he has given to his product with rounded
edges and a brighter green wrapper.
We can see how valuable as an action guideline such an exercise
can be. This is the first purpose of ‘preference mapping’ -to
measure the gap, if any, between the position of the brand as
actually perceived and the preferred or ideal position of its target
segment.
Looking for ‘Holes’
The second purpose for which we track such preferred positions
is to discover ‘holes’ or vacant positions in the market structure
because they represent opportunities for new products.
Strategy decisions
The strategy decisions which follow such preference mapping
are the following:
(a) When we know the ‘ideal point’ or preferred position of our
target segment, as revealed through such mapping, we can
judge whether the perceived-position of our brand needs to
be brought closer to that ideal point. This may involve some
change in its advertising to create a revised perception of the
brand more in line with that ideal point. It may also involve
some correspond-ing changes in the physical features of the
brand. (The easiest to change is the pack design.)
(b) On the other hand, we may decide to change the preferred
position or ideal point of our target segment and bring that
ideal point closer to the perceived position of our brand.
This is admittedly more difficult. In the lower-priced
transistor radio category it was found, at one time, that
consumers preferred models which offered high volume of
sound. The marketer in question decided to change the
preference of this target segment through advertising to
increase the salience of tonal quality over mere volume and
thus get a closer match with the existing position of his
brand which was perceived to have a lower volume of
sound.
(c) Thirdly, as we have seen, we may decide to launch a new
brand altogether - or perhaps, reposition an existing brand to get a closer fit with a preferred position which represents a
con-sumer need unfulfilled by existing brands.
11
BRAND POSITIONING
frame of reference only if she can be persuaded of their benefit
to her: Washing powders take away the dirt but Robin Liquid
gives clothes that extra ‘coat of white’. And in advertising terms
this becomes “The whiteness dip”
After washing clothes with powders, give them that dip in
Robin Liquid for extra whiteness.
In a sense, Robin Liquid’s advertising had to modify the
housewife’s frame o f reference by increasing the ‘salience’ of
extra whiteness of clothes above and beyond what detergent
powders can do -.cleaning clothes but leaving them somewhat
off-white.
With this positioning strategy, Robin Liquid achieved a trial rate
of 25% among the target segment in Madras, where it was test
launched, after just 12 exposures over TV. In Calcutta, the
percentage of trial among target households was 14% after the
same number of ex-posures. It may be noted that Madras
consumers were somewhat more familiar with liquid blues than
in Calcutta.
LESSON 5
POSITIONING IS ROOTED IN PRODUCT FEATURES
BRAND POSITIONING
Options for the brand manager
The extent to which the physical attributes of a brand influence
its perception by the target consumer. Must the physical or
functional features of the brand dictate its position? Or, can the
brand manager override these physical features and achieve the
position he desires, through crafting other elements of the
marketing mix, notably packaging and advertis-ing?
Position...refers to a brand’s subjective (or perceived) attributes .
This perceived image of the brand belongs not to the product
but rather is the property of the consumer’s mental perceptions
and in some instances, could differ widely from a brand’s true
physical characteristics.
We have earlier seen situations (Milkmaid, 7-Up), where the
physical characteristics of the product were unchanged, but a
substantial change in its perception was created through
advertising. To what extent does the brand manager have
flexibility in targeting a position for his brand ‘which may differ
widely from its true physical charac-teristics’?
A-slippery problem
Let us return to the premium toilet soap market in India.
Suppose research has discovered an emerging cluster of
consumers-young, modern, well-to-do-who believe that a bath
soap should have good-for-skin qualities, who even think well
of traditional herbs like
Neem, but would accept it only with much more pronounced
cosmetic benefits in terms of perfume, lather, colour, shape and
packaging. Recall our discussion on Margo in the previous
chapter.
Is it possible for a ‘dressed-up’ Margo to aim for that new
position? Can Margo make the jump from where it is (that is,
the way it is perceived now) so as to occupy the preferred
position of this new cluster? Would the present physical
characteristics of Margo-dark-green colour, strong Neem
perfume, squat shape-permit the brand to match the ideal point
of this new cluster merely on the basis of some superficial
feature-changes like new packaging and brilliant advertis-ing?
And if the brand manager were to make the gamble of trying
to position Marg()-with some physical changes-both for his
present target segment and the new one, how successful would
he be? On the other hand, suppose he decides to make radical
changes to Margo, so as to greatly enhance its cosmetic values,
how would that affect his present loyal segment of users?
Should he pause and recall that old saying- “Beware of greed
and grow fat”? Would it be better to consider a new product
altogether? A product whose physical features are specifically
designed to fit the new position, and whose concept can be
stated as:
A highly emollient soap. Floral perfume with top note of
Neem: ‘The Creamy Neem’. The benefit of pure, age-old neem
goodness without the drab looks of average neem soaps.
12
This is the type of real-life question that will confront the brand
manager, when he considers the relationship between his
brand’s physical features and the position he would like it to
occupy.
At this point let us deliberately recapitulate our observations on
how brand positions are formed.
Sizing up a brand:
. What we call ‘positioning’ is really the consumer’s shorthand
for ‘sizing up’ a brand, its physical and emotional benefits, and
where it fits into her framework of needs and wants. As we said
earlier, positions are the consumer’s perception of brands in a
product category and their perceived distance from one another.
If that perception of our brand has stimulated her interest, she
tucks it away in a corner of her mind. She gives it a position.
And she relates our brand to competitive brands which may
also have earned positions in her mind. She is creating an
imprint on her mind, as it were, for each of these fortunate
brands which have aroused some degree of interest.
It is our job to capture those imprints on her mind. We do this
through research (which is preferable) or judgement. And we
portray those imprints in the form of a perceptual or positioning map of the product category. Can those imprints or
perceptions be formed independent of the product’s attributes?
We will now look at this question afresh in another context the toothpaste market in India.
Colgate and Forhan’s
A consumer can allot a position in her mind only if she can
form a picture of a given brand. And this is based on its
functional attributes, perfor-mance and advertising.
Thus, Colgate has a dominant claim on the position of an
‘anti-tooth decay’ and ‘fresh breath’ toothpaste. This strong
positioning is supported by suitable product features (minty
taste, foaminess) and consistent advertising.
Forhan’s Regular (in the orange pack) has a dominant hold on
the ‘Good for Gums’ position. Its taste is disliked. It does not
foam well, but it does have an astringent which is good for the
gums. at could be that it is difficult to combine this astringent,
which is highly beneficial for gums, with high foaming properties.) This functional attribute has been backed by strong
advertising to create the Forhan’s Regular position in the
consumer mind.
Forhan’s Regular has strengthened its ‘Good for Gums’
position by pointing out how the astringent, by tightening the
gums, keeps teeth in place longer.
We see then that a brand’s position must be supported by the
brand’s attributes. But a brand’s attributes may be communicated to the consumer in a variety of ways. And the consumer
can be persuaded to perceive the same, unchanged product in
different ways. At some stage we may decide to secure another,
more profitable position in the consumer’s mind without
BRAND POSITIONING
doing anything to the product, or its at-tributes, and merely
changing the way it is perceived.
We can do this by emphasizing one attribute of a brand and
de-emphasizing another. By way of example, let us take a
new toothpaste brand, Forhan’s Fluoride, which was
launched in 1978 as an extension of the Forhan’s range of
dental-care products. At that time, marketing management
had three major positioning options.
Look at the pictures
13
BRAND POSITIONING
Same features, three options
Unlike Forhan’s Regular, Forhan’s Fluoride has far greater
foaming properties. (Lack of foam is one of the perceived
negatives of Forhan’s Regular and has caused many users to
switch.) Thus, Forhan’s Fluoride could have been positioned as
“Foaming Forhan’s”, that is, a toothpaste “with the goodness
of Forhan’s plus foam”. Indeed, one of the early commercials
for the brand had a line, Yeh Jhagwala hai, meaning this is the
foaming variety of Forhan’s. Such a positioning would have
placed the brand very close to Forhan’s Regular in the
consumer’s perceptions, increasing the dangers of
‘cannibalization’.Cannibalization can be thought of as a
perceptual map in which like products of the same company
(say, toothpastes) are positioned very close to one another and
compete more with one another than with brands of other
companies.A second option was to seek a mid-way position in
which both attributes were more or less equally emphasized,
and to hope that this would reduce cannibalization while
attracting users of other fluoride brands.The third positioning
option was to emphasize the fluoride content of Forhan’s
Fluoride (the super cavity fighter), bringing it, in the consumer’s
eyes, close to other fluoride brands such as Binaca.
In fact, the company exercised both the second and third
options at different points of time. While the brand manager
has some flexibility, as we have seen above, a brand cannot hope
to attain a desired position if its physical attributes and
performance are felt by the consumer to be strongly at variance
with that position. On the simplest plane, a brand wishing to
be seen as an expensive man’s soap, cannot have a ‘feminine’
perfume or a cheap pack A toothpaste with poor foaming
properties cannot seek a Jhagwala position.To return to our
toothpaste example, later ads for Forhan’s Regular have
attempted to broaden its market by embracing the fresh breath
position as well, without changing the product attributes
(Exhibit 3-6). Also notice that what used to be Forhan’s
Fluoride is now positioned as ‘foaming Forhan’s’. This seems
to take us back to the first option!.The question is: What new
imprints on her mind, for Forhan’s Regular, would the
consumer accept? And what is the relationship of that imprint
(or perceived position as a ‘fresh breath’ toothpaste) to the
functional attributes of Forhan’s Regular? You may like to
deliberate upon this.
Brand benefit options
The brand manager also has flexibility in positioning decisions,
in terms of which particular benefits he will emphasize, when a
brand offers more than one benefit, which is true of many
brands. Complan, for instance, is a many-splendoured brand
and offers several benefits.
Because it has “23 vital foods which your body needs every day”
it can be positioned as the complete planned food for convalescents and others who cannot take their normal diet. Likewise, it
can be posi-tioned as the busy executive’s mid-day nourishment
(the Complan break), since workaholics often miss their meals.
And, of course, it can be positioned for the reassurance of the
concerned mother, as the health-drink for growing children.
But notice again that each of these positioning options is
strongly supported by the functional properties of Complan.
In fact, in such situations, it is not the lack of positioning
flexibility that should bother the brand manager, but the
problem of greed.
And finally, we can attempt to change the perception of an
at-tribute-a more difficult task. For example, we may try to
make a filter cigarette appear to be manly and not ‘sissy’ as we
shall see with Marlboro, one of the early filter brands in the
USA.
Brand personality:
Based on the premise that brands can have personalities in
much the same way as humans, Brand Personality describes
brands in terms of human characteristics. Brand personality is
seen as a valuable factor in increasing brand engagement and
brand attachment, in much the same way as people relate and
bind to other people. Much of the work in the area of brand
personality is based on translated theories of human personality and using similar measures of personality attributes and
factors
The Brand Personality Dimensions is a framework to
describe and measure the ‘personality” of a brand in five core
dimensions, each divided into a set of facets. It is an easy to
understand model to describe the profile of a brand using an
analogy with a human being.
The five core dimensions and their facets are:
•
•
•
•
•
Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful)
Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date)
Competence (reliable, intelligent, successful)
Sophistication (upper class, charming)
Ruggedness (outdoorsy, tough)
Each facet is in turn measured by a set of traits. The trait
measures are taken using a five-point scale (1= not at all
descriptive, 5=extremely descriptive) rating the extent to which
each trait describes the specific brand of interest. The traits used
for each of the facets are:
• Down-to-earth (down-to-earth, family-oriented, smalltown)
• Honest (honest, sincere, real)
• Wholesome (wholesome, original)
• Cheerful (cheerful, sentimental, friendly)
• Daring (daring, trendy, exciting)
• Spirited (spirited, cool, young)
• Imaginative (imaginative, unique)
14
Up-to-date (up-to-date, independent, contemporary)
Reliable (reliable, hard working, secure)
Intelligent (intelligent, technical, corporate)
Successful (successful, leader, confident)
Upper class (upper class, glamorous, good looking)
Charming (charming, feminine, smooth)
Outdoorsy (outdoorsy, masculine, Western)
Tough (tough, rugged)
Down-to-earth, family oriented, genuine, oldfashioned (Sincerity).
This might describe brands like Hallmark, Kodak, and even
Coke. The relationship might be similar to one that exists with
a well-liked and respected member of the family.
Spirited, young, up-to-date, outgoing (Excitement).
In the softdrink category, Pepsi fits this mold more than Coke.
Especially on a weekend evening, it might be enjoyable to have a
friend who has these personality characteristics.
Accomplished, influential, competent (Competence).
Perhaps Hewlett-Packard and the Wall Street Journal might fit
this profile. Think of a relationship with a person whom you
respect for their accomplishments, such as a teacher, minister or
business leader; perhaps that is what a relationship between a
business computer and its customer should be like.
Pretentious, wealthy, condescending (Sophistication).
For some, this would be BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus (with gold
trim) as opposed to the Mazda Miata or the VW Golf. The
relationship could be similar to one with a powerful boss or a
rich relative.
Athletic and outdoorsy (Ruggedness).
Nike (versus LA Gear), Marlboro (versus Virginia Slims), and
Wells Fargo (versus Bank of America) are examples. When
planning an outing, a friend with outdoorsy interests would be
welcome.
Two elements thus affect an individual’s relationship with a
brand. First, there is the relationship between the brand-asperson and the customer, which is analogous to the
relationship between two people. Second, there is the brand
personality—that is, the type of person the brand represents.
The brand personality provides depth, feelings and liking to the
relationship. Of course, a brand-customer relationship can also
be based on a functional benefit, just as two people can have a
strictly business relationship.
nized. Of course, a product typically doesn’t have an innate
personality, unless the product is... say...a puppy. One of the
jobs of advertising is to imbue a brand with that identifiable
and believable personality. Thus, one of the jobs of an agency is
to think strategically about what the brand personality should
be and then convey that strategic intent to the creative team.
Better yet, the creative team should be part of the process, as
they are with important new creative strategies before they’re
submitted to the client. There are two temptations people
should resist when writing a brand personality statement . Not
equating the “personality” of a brand with the “tone” of the
advertising. And not cheating by shoehorning in benefits they
ran out of room for under the “advertising promise” portion
of the creative brief.
Rather, think in terms of endowing the brand with a “human”
personality. That will help you develop one that is clear,
consistent and predictable. When listing adjectives to describe
that personality, think carefully about each one and how well it
supports the others. For example, if you have a friend who is
intelligent, serious and sincere, you would not expect her to also
be fun and happy-go-lucky. Or say you want to develop a brand
personality that is warm, caring and nurturing, while at the same
time you want the brand to feel “successful.” If you picture a
“successful” person, it takes you off in a different direction —
that of an action-oriented, perhaps even aggressive type. Finally,
try not to come up with a whole laundry list of adjectives. Pare
those powerful parts of speech down to two or three words
that really convey the essence.
There are three things that matters while writing about brand
personality of any brand. They are
the competitive brands,
the pre-existing personality or inherent qualities in your own
brand and
the characteristics of the target audience.
The task of developing a strategic personality statement should
be done only once, with creative execution building and adding
depth over the course of many individual ads. It is this
consistency that helps consumers feel familiar with the product.
Importance of brand personality:
There are three very compelling reasons for a brand to have an
identifiable personality beyond any specific advertising or public
relations activity for that brand.
First, because more and more parity products are arriving on the
scene to duke it out with one another, the brand’s personality
may be the one and only factor that separates it from its
competitors. Second, when a purchase decision involves (or
perhaps even depends on) an emotional response, a likeable
personality may well provide that necessary emotional link.
Third, a consistent brand personality can help not only the
brand, but that brand’s advertising stand out and be recog15
BRAND POSITIONING
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•
•
•
•
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LESSON 6
THE PURSUIT OF DIFFERENTIAL ADVANTAGE
BRAND POSITIONING
Cornerstones of positioning strategy:
Positioning is the pursuit of differential advantage. Brands can
create franchises of loyal consumers only when they are seen to
be different in some way which is persuasive for the target
segment.
Qne of the major contributions of positioning theory to
marketing strategy has been to bring out the concept of
‘distance’ and dis-similarity between brands in the ‘perceptual
space’ of the prospect and to uncover the many opportunities
for such perceived differentiation based upon the capabilities of
the product and its antecedents
Positioning puts in the hands of the brand manager an entire
array of differentiating strategies. He must judge which of these
strategies can help him locate a niche in the market where his
brand may be perceived by his target segment as unique and
where it will hold a competitive advantage.
These strategies revolve around different aspects of the brand
which can be expressed as four questions posed on its behalf.
The four strategic questions are:
1. Who am I?
2. What am I?
3. For Whom am I?
4. Why Me?
1. Who am i?
This question concerns the corporate credentials of the brand.
The prospect is urged to think of the brand in terms of its
origins, its family tree, the ‘stable’ from which it comes; the idea
being that this can give the brand a competitive advantage.
Positioning by corporate identity
We see this most often with durables when a tried and trusted
corporate identity or source-which has become a household
name for some products like Philips for radios and lamps-is
used to imply the competitive superiority of newer products
bearing that name: Philips Mixies; Philips Electric Irons; Philips
Refrigerators.
This can be such a strong positioning element that companies
who market each brand under a different name, e.g. Hindustan
Lever (Surf, Sunlight and Wheel detergent powders; Lifebuoy,
Pears, Lux, Rexona, ,Mril bath soaps) nevertheless introduce the
corporate credential as a byline:
A quality product of Hindustan Lever The Tata Oil Mills
Company Ltd (TOMCO) endorses its brands (e.g. Hamam, Jai,
OK, Revel, 501) with the words, “A TATA Product”. So does
the Godrej Company.
Positioning by brand endorsement
When a brand has proved very successful the marketer can
exploit the strength of that name for entering another product
category. After the phenomenal success of Nirma Washing
16
Powder.it seemed logical to give the next entry-a detergent barthe same brand name. The third entry of this company-a toilet
soap also bears the same brand name. The popular toilet soap
market in India is very competitive with strongly entrenched
brands like Lux, Rexona, Hamam. Nirma bath soap enters this
market with a credible, competitive answer to the consumer’s
query, “Who are you? Do I know you?” C Merle Crawford
refers to this positioning strategy as ‘parentage’.
Parentage...because of where it comes from, who makes it, who
sells it, who performs it, etc. The three ways of parentage
positioning are brand (Cadillac or Citizen printer), company (the
Data General/One or Kodak diskette), and person.
Some of the practical questions that arise are: “How much of
parentage?” “How much of offspring?” When Vazir Sultan
Company, owners of the Charminar brand of cigarettes,
decided to diversify and launch new cigarettes they had to find
answers to this difficult question. Charminar at one time was
considered among the world brands in terms of its sales
volume. At that time it was by far the largest selling brand in
India. The brand was priced at the lower end of the market, but
its smokers cut across various strata.
With new brands on the drawing board, the Company had to
decide whether the well-known Charminar name should be
used to position its new entrants. If so, with what degree of
emphasis? It should be noted that Vazir Sultan, tne Company,
was relatively unknown. it was often referred to as ‘the
Charminar Company’. Hence ‘parentage’ was embodied in the
name ‘Charminar’.
The first major new brand from the Charminar ‘stable’ was a
filter called ‘Charminar Gold’. The company had a two-fold
objective. First, it wanted to establish a distinct identity for
‘Gold’ with its promise of “smoothness and satisfaction- only
Gold has both.” Second, it wished to give the new brand a
good start with the trade and consumers alike by referring to its
origins. The pack designs of the mother brand, Charminar and
of Charminar Gold) and the press ad for the new brand show
how this dual purpose was tackled. Note the varying emphasis
on ‘Charminar’ and ‘Gold’. You will find a completely different
emphasis in another filter brand of this company: ‘Charminar
Filter’ . A major landmark for this company was the decision to
enter the upper reaches of the cigarette market in India with a
Virginia type king-sized filter. If you are too young to remember, your older friends will recall that the vastly popular
Charminar was affectionately nick-named ‘Charms’ by many of
its up-market loyalists.
In 1981 a spectacularly successful king-sized Virginia filter
cigarette entered the market with the brand name of ‘Charms’,
clothed in a handsome denim-like packet and bearing a
tantalizing message:
Charms is the spirit of freedom;
Charms is the way you are. .
BRAND POSITIONING
In such situations, marketing management has to find the right
balance. How much of parentage positioning will give the new
brand a good start against competition? How much will swamp
its identity and prevent the prospect from recognizing a new
and different offer-ing? Do you think the right balance was
struck as seen in the Charms ad?
This can be quite a thorny dilemma as you will find from this
account of a new toothpaste brand launched in 1984 as an
extension of the Forhan’s range.
For some time, Geoffrey Manners (who make and market the
Forhan’s range) had noted with concern that their flagship
brand-Forhan’s Regular-was attracting fewer and fewer of
younger, urban consumers with modern tastes. At one time
this was the No.2 brand in India after Colgate. With the launch
of Forhan’s Fluoride the total market share of the Company
had increased but they still felt the absence of a brand which
would carve out a niche within the broad spectrum favouring
Colgate (about 50% market share).
The positioning concept of the new brand was
expressed as follows:
A high quality foaming toothpaste for modem, young people;
it has a pleasing minty taste and also gives the reassurance of
care of the gums.
From this positioning concept arose the name: ‘Forhan’s
Freshmint’. Getting down to brass tacks, the Company had to
decide “How much of Forhan’s? How much of Freshmint?”
Freshmint is what differen-tiated the brand from its ‘parent’.
The parentage positioning dilemma was this. Had the name
‘Forhan’s’, over the years, acquired a highly therapeutic and
‘stodgy’ image which would detract from the modernity and
taste appeal of the new brand? Yet, how could the brand
position itself, not as a pimply little me-too to Colgate, but as a
strong contender for those young urban men and women who
would opt for a brand that tasted as good as Colgate, appealed
to their sense of modernity, and also promised them a
meaningful difference compared to Colgate?
The name ‘Forhan’s’ was already well-known and had a widely
accepted association with gum care. If the power of this name
did not back the new brand, would it be easy to challenge
Colgate with a brand which was totally unknown? Should
‘Forhan’s’ be played up? Played down?
The first testing ground to resolve this dilemma was the pack
design. Eventually, after many designs, it was felt that the pack
seen in the picture represented the optimal answer to the
question: “Who am I?” The ad which launched Forhan’s
Freshmint is seen in the same exhibit.
Look at the pictures for reference
17
LESSON 7
WHAT AM I?
BRAND POSITIONING
The positioning strategies around this question relate to the
product’s functional capabilities. They offer the brand manager
considerable scope for perceived brand differentiation.
2
‘What am I?’ differentiating strageties can be grouped under:
(a) Category-related positioning
(b) Benefit-related positioning
(c) Positioning by usage occasion and time
(d) Price-Quality positioning
1.Category-related positioning
An important differentiating strategy when an existing product
category is too crowded is to take the same basic product and
position it in another category, provided the attributes of the
product can match consumer expectations from that category.
Your brand will then be perceived by prospects in a different
light. This is referred to in the jargon as ‘macro-positioning or
‘inter-set positioning’.4
If you are marketing a skimmed milk powder, for instance, the
same basic product can be positioned as:
(i) reconstituted milk as we see in the hypothetical ‘Akul Home
Dairy’concept ad (Exhibit1).
If this position is already occupied you can position your brand
as:
(ii) a whitener for tea and coffee as in the ‘Akul Special’ ad
(Exhibit2). Considering the growing interest in physical
fitness you can position it as:
(iii) ‘Akul Weight -Watcher’, the health-giving, low-calorie milk
for the diet conscious. (Exhibit3).
Again, following international trends you might decide to enter
the breakfast foods category and position your milk powder as:
1
18
3
5
2.Benefit-related positioning
A well made product would usually offer more than one
benefit. Promises of multiple benefits, however, tend to get
lost because they leave in the consumer’s mind a vague and
19
BRAND POSITIONING
4
(iv) ‘Akul Instant Breakfast’ - see the product concept in
(Exhibit4).
Once you have chosen the category in which to slot your brand,
you should be prepared for suitable modifications in the
product and other elements of the marketing mix. If a milk
powder has to be positioned as a ‘whitener’ for tea or coffee you
will take great care over its instant solubility. You may also
introduce a creamier variety. For the ‘Home Dairy’ position, it
should be readily soluble in hot and cold water without leaving
lumps. As an ‘instant breakfast’ you may need to add vitamins
and other nutrients and possibly, flavours. It must also offer
good taste.
Thus, once the category positioning decision is taken, the smart
marketer will try to modify the functional features of his
existing brand to mesh more closely with that position. If it is a
new brand he
will design it from scratch so as to make it a perfect match.The
packaging form for ‘Home Dairy’ may be a metal can. For the
‘whitener’ it may be serving-size sachets. For ‘instant breakfast’
it may be a glass jar.
Distribution modifications may be needed as well. The
‘weight-watcher’ product may also fit on chemists’ shelves for
example, and certainly in the emerging health-food outlets.
The category-related positioning decision determines the
product market in which you will operate. It defines your
competition. You will wish to choose a category where there are
no strong competitors making your brand a ‘me-too’. You may
choose to enter a long haul category because you believe it has a
future, like ‘instant breakfast’ or a food for the diet conscious.
In an ad for a capital issue which appeared in November 1988, a
new
Company, the Amrit Protein Foods Ltd, announced as its
object:
A complete line of fitness foods: Health and fitness are making
big headlines these days. And to meet the growing demand for
new generation fitness foods, Amrit Protein will manufacture a
wide range of products: Soya Milk, Soya Milk Beverages, Soya
Dessert, and High Quality Soya Paneer.
Somebody evidently believes that there is a long-term future for
beverages and foods positioned in the category of ‘fitness
foods’.
With this positioning decision you are really making your bed
and you must be prepared to lie on it. Repositioning is indeed
possible and may sometimes be unavoidable. But it is better to
make a long-term decision in the first place.
The Maruti Van was initially positioned and advertised as a van.
It was to compete against Bajaj and Standard Vans. Later it was
renamed ‘Omni’ and repositioned as the most spacious car on
the Indian road. Its competition was with the other cars like
Ambassador and Fiat and indeed, the Maruti car itself. As a
matter of fact, many consumers had already placed the Maruti
Van in this position in their minds as shown by their attitudes
to it and the way they used it. Maruti Udyog was
recognizing this fact in their new advertising (Exhibit 5).
BRAND POSITIONING
diffused imprint. Successful consumer products promise one or
at the most two benefits and brand franchises are created
around those specific benefits. Thus we have the opportunity
for differentiation of similar products based on benefit
positions which have not yet been occupied.
Consumers, who are similar in important ways, tend to cluster
around the same benefit. Other consumers would cluster
around other benefits. This enables differentiation in a product
market and has been well documented as ‘Benefit Segmentation’. II
Russel J Haley conducted research among toothpaste users in
the USA (1963) and divided them into segments, each desiring
a specific benefit from their brand of toothpaste. He uncovered
four such benefit segments and their respective brand choices:
Economy: those who were looking for low price.
Cosmetic: those who wanted white, bright teeth.
Taste those to whom taste mattered the most.
Medicinal: those who were concerned about prevention o f
decay.
Each benefit-seeking group or segment had certain common
cha-racteristics-demographic, psychographic, and also
behaviouristic.
There is no published account of similar research on the
toothpaste market in India. Judged by their advertising, the
benefit positions occupied or sought by major brands would be
approximately as follows:
Maltova
Taste
Emotional benefits
Decay prevention
Gum care and other therapeutic
Decay prevention and tartar control
Close –Up
Colgate, Close-Up, Forhan’s Regular
Colgate
Colgate, Colgate Fluorigard, Binaca Fluoride, Signal
Forhan’s Regular, Promise, Neem
Grest
As you can see, Colgate, the market leader by far, is positioned
across a broad band of benefits. Others are positioned by more
specific benefits.
A new differentiated positioning opportunity can be sought by
offering a unique combination of benefits. This was the
thinking behind Forhan’s Freshmint which offered the gumcare benefit of Forhan’s plus the minty taste associated with
Colgate.
The introduction of ‘Crest’ in the above table is pure speculation at this time (1989) on the part of the author. But since
Procter & Gamble are now formally in India, one may well
expect this gifted brand to surface here.
Features or benefits:
20
Bournvita
Fresh breath
Cosmetics : White, bright teeth
Brand
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Boost
Nutramul
Look at the ads for these brands reproduced here and judge
how they have differentiated themselves through benefit-related
position-ing (Exhibits6,7,8,9).
Benefit Position
•
•
•
•
•
•
For this lets take the example of a hypothetical chocolate maltbased beverage and let us christen it ‘brown-vita’. At least four
strong positions can be created around the basic formulation or
physical characteristics of the product. For the sake of our
example, the same brand name throughout this example but
each of these positions positions can be filled by a distinct
brand commanding its own loyal segment. Thus, our brand,
Brown-Vita, can be positioned in the health beverage category as
a chocolate-based drink which has a lot of good taste.
The health drink that’s full of Taste
Or we can position Brown-Vita as the energy drink emphasizing its carbohydrate contents. The health drink packed with
Energy Or Brown-Vita can be positioned for its natural
goodness. We would make much of its ingredients-malt, milk,
cocoa-and stress the absence of artificial ingredients. It would
be: The health drink full of Natural Goodness And finally, we
might highlight the non-fattening properties of Brown-Vita as
well as its proteins and vitamins to promise the benefit of low
calories plus nourishment value: The health drink high in
Nourishment and low in Calories There are four major brands
belonging to this category of cocoa and malt-based health
beverages which are presently marketed in India:
When we talk of benefit-related positioning, we must remember that a brand is a composite entity and the position which
the consumer gives it in her mind represents her perception of
the brand in terms, of its tangible or functional benefits and
also its non-functional or emotional benefits.
How do we handle the concept of emotional or non-functional
benefit in the practical task of creating a distinct and persuasive
position for the brand?
Although the concept is now well accepted by marketing and
advertis-ing practitioners, applying the concept to create a
persuasive difference between functionally similar brands is a
more complex task.
3. Positioning by usage occasion and time of use Positioning by
usage occasion or application is another strong if-ferentiating
BRAND POSITIONING
6
8
7
9
21
BRAND POSITIONING
strategy within the ambit of the question, ‘What am I?’. If a
brand employs this strategy well, it can virtually pre-empt
that particular usage. Find a strong usage position and sit on
it...for instance, the condensed milk brand, Milkmaid, has
come to dominate the dessert usage position so strongly
that it cannot be easily dislodged by a competitor.
Cadbury’s drinking chocolate experimented with two usage
posi-tions (exhibit 10,11)
(i) The relaxing way to end your day: The Good Night Cup
and shortly afterwards,
(ii) Now is the time to sit back and put up your feet make
this the happiest time of your day
with Cadbury’s Drinking Chocolate.
10
11
22
As you see, usage occasion and time of use, or when to use, are
often combined.
The reason for abandoning the Goodnight Cup position is not
known. Can it be that this position was not given a proper trial?
In these days of stress, tension, high pressures of work and
competition, this represents in our view a potentially valuable
usage position for a product with suitable features. At this
moment it remains a vacant position in the branded beverage
market in India. .
An exceptionally single-minded usage positioning strategy,
linked also to the time of use, is the positioning of Vicks
VapoRub to be applied for a child’s cold, at night. Many have
tried to breach this position and failed. Vicks VapoRub has
made this usage position virtually unassailable.
Burnol antiseptic ointment is for burns and strongly entrenched
for that usage. Dettol antiseptic is for nicks and cuts, insect bites
and other minor infections. Each of these brands has sat on its
usage position for decades without any serious challenger. If
you have found a good usage position for your brand, sit on it,
make it your domain.
Interestingly, Dettol soap, relaunched in 1984, has made
headway in the crowded premium toilet soap market by
adopting a strategy of creating and dominating a specific usage
occasion. This is the occasion when you feel particularly sticky or
dirty or grimy and would respond to the idea of a ‘100% bath’
(see Exhibit12).
12
This makes Dettol more like a soap for a middle of the
morning bath after a gruelling visit to the bazaar or the after-
To meet this demand Union Carbide developed a battery in
1985 using zinc chloride technology. Pricing for the product was
fixed at a 20% higher level than Red Eveready, the company’s
premium brand in the standard range (see Exhibit 4-19). The
pricing was arrived at after considering value to the consumer
and price-elasticity. The following comparative table highlights
the price-performance benefits of this product in relation to the
best ‘standard’ battery available.
The company and its agency, Rediffusion, then considered the
following positioning options.
Differentiate similar products
How do you draw upon positioning-by-usage to distinguish
two physi-cally identical products? Take a simple illustrationtwo brands of processed peanuts which serve as snacks.
Cheers’ Peanuts may be positioned as the tasty, crunchy snack to
go with drinks.
Champion’ Peanuts, virtually identical in the laboratory, can be
positioned as the nourishing after-a-game snack.
Mother Dairy in Calcutta has launched what is probably the first
branded yoghurt in India in the internationally used polystyrene
container. It is called ‘Mishti Doi’ (literally, Sweet Curds) and its
usage is as a dessert.
A competitor may launch his own very similar yoghurt (unsweetened) as ‘Chefs Dahi’ to be used as a cooking aid by the
housewife to create favourite dishes for family and guests such
as Dahi-bada or delicacies such as ‘Dahi Fish Curry’, ete.
For both the actually branded yoghurt, ‘Mishti Doi’, and the
hypothetical one, ‘Chef’s Dahi’, the main competition is of
course with the unbranded dahi which is available from the
sweetmeat shop around the corner in sweetened and unsweetened versions. Judging by international trends, branded
yoghurt may well be a growth category. The Milkfood Company
has launched Milkfood Yogurt with multi-usage positioning.
Eat it for breakfast. Or as a mid-morning snack. With a
sandwich for lunch. Or even instead of tea. It’s great as a dessert
too. A competitor with a similar product may decide to
dominate one or two of these positions or open up new usage
positions such as in the school lunch box or as the fitness snack
after a workout.
standard batteries including Red Eveready. Also, 100% leak
proof performance could not be guaranteed.
Product line positioning by usage
To minimize cannibalization, as we said in Chapter 3, marketers
adopt different positions for their brands in the same product
category. Differentiation by usage occasion is one such strategy.
Union Carbide’s Eveready (dry cell) batteries provide a good
ex-ample.7 Till the seventies, over 95% of the total battery
demand came from torch and transistor usage. However, since
the eighties, there has been a boom in the population of
cassette tape recorders, two-in-ones, cameras using photoflash
guns, battery-operated toys, cal-culators and other sophisticated
equipment like TV remote controls, hearing aids, etc. These
equipments are normally high drain devices and they consume
more electrical energy per unit of time compared to equipment
like torches and transistors. In addition, since these equipments
are high value products, the need is more pronounced for a
battery which is ‘safe’, i.e . less prone to leakages.
• The Most Leak proof Battery Available in India
• To carry conviction one would have to compare it to
• The Superior Modem Technology Position
• Valid, but again this would have involved a comparison with
Red Eveready. Besides, the competitive edge would be
diminished when other brands like Novino and Nippo
followed suit.
• Performance positioning
• This could be a legitimate and strong positioning, but more
than any of the other alternatives, this position would hurt
Union Carbide more than its competitors. It would have
implied the inferiority of the Eveready Standard range (Red,
Blue and White) which comprised 45% of the total battery
market.
• . End-use based positioning
• Market research studies conducted for batteries had clearly
indicated that consumers have a definite hierarchical
perception of quality relative to the end-use for the battery.
For example, a transistor is perceived to be a higher order
equipment than a torch and hence if a battery is said to be
designed specially for transistor usage, it is superior to a
battery made for torches.
• Research data had also indicated that in the hierarchy of
equip-ments, photoflash equipment was at the top, followed
by cassette tape recorders (CTRs) and other motorized
gadgets. Transistors came next, with torches at the bottom
of the rung. Positioning this battery as a product for
‘modern machines’, Le. CTRs, photoflash equipment and
other motorized equipment would have allowed consumer
beliefs regarding the equipment hierarchy to rub off on to
the new product and would definitely help to position the
product as a top-of-the-line battery, without endangering
Eveready’s standard-line volumes/market share.However, a
focus on end-use equipment to prove performance
superiority could only be effective if the consumer were given
a ‘reason-why’ to believe the claim. The substantiation of
this product claim lay in its zinc chloride technology. The
technology linkage provided not only the ‘reason-why’ but
also created a premium image by clearly establishing the
battery in ‘a class of its own’ because of its modern,
exclusive technology. It also allowed Union Carbide to
exploit the technology leadership factor inherent in the zinc
chloride process, without worrying about the impending
competitive product launch.Accordingly, this positioning
23
BRAND POSITIONING
work bath at the end of a long hard day. (No doubt, many
consumers also use it at the start of the day.) This is a courageous decision-having the boldness to dominate a specific usage
position rather than peck ineffectively at a broad usage market ’A high quality soap for a bath’- or aim for an extremely narrow
usage, ‘the antiseptic bath soap’.
With this positioning, Dettol soap has climbed from 1.7%
market share before its relaunch in 1984 to 3.7% share in 1988.
This compares with 4.5% market share of a well-established,
long-time brand like Pears. A selective usage position may turn
out to be quite profitable after all, if it attracts an adequate
number of consumers and you dominate the position.
BRAND POSITIONING
statement for the new product, ‘EvereadySuper’, was fmally
developed .No other battery can deliver such exceptionally
high power and life for your power-hungry, high-drain
devices because it is made with the breakthrough, first-timein-India zinc chloride technology.
Positioning by usage to broaden market
A positioning-by-usage strategy is also adopted when a brand
wishes to expand its market by creating and occupying other
usage positions. This happens more often with mature brands
where the existing market by usage has reached near-saturation
as with Dettol antiseptic in urban markets in India.
Dettol antiseptic liquid, having dominated the cuts and wounds
usage of the household market, went on to position itself for
use in the shaving mug and for washing baby’s nappies. Of
late, Dettol ads have been recommending its use during illness
to ward off infection (Exhibit 4-21). When a good product is
formulated, its properties often lend them-selves to multiple
usage of the brand. These many usage positions are visualized
when the label itself is written up.
Take a bottle of Dettol antiseptic and you will read about the
following uses on its label apart from ‘Cuts and Wounds’.
Personal uses
•
•
•
•
As mouth wash and gargle.
As dandruff shampoo.
When shaving.
For baby’s nappies.
(How-to-use instructions are given for each application.)
The instructions on the label, if thoughtfully drawn up, thus
give a general indication of the potential of the brand to
broaden its usage. In retrospect, one can speculate whether ICI’s
Savlon antiseptic liquid would have had an easier passage if it
had opted for a ‘flanking’ positioning strategy instead of taking
Dettol head-on.
In the laboratory, Savlon was proved more effective against
germs than Dettol. This was one of the reasons why Savlon
commanded a good share of the institutional market like
hospitals. Drawing inspira-tion from this, Savlon was advertised to the household market in India, in direct confrontation
with powerful Dettol, with the message:
The other antiseptic (meaning Dettol) kills only the gram-positive
germs. Savlon kills both gram-positive and gram-negative
germs.
It is not surprising that the brand did not make much headway
with the housewife who usually makes the buying decision for
such a product.
Suppose, on the other hand, Savlon liquid was positioned as
the antiseptic to be used like a shampoo against dandruff.
Savlon’s parentage-ICI-would have given it competitive
credibility for such usage. The dandruff sufferer may have
proved more receptive than the housewife to the semi-clinical
message of Savlon’s efficiency against multiple germs.
Other product features may have aided this usage position.
Savlon does not sting. It lathers well. It does not discolour (as
Dettol does) when mixed with water. It does not have Dettol’s
obtrusive smell. If it succeeded in this usage, savalon antiseptic
24
could have later broadened its market by nibbling away at
Dettol’s ‘nicks and cuts’ usage position.
As a footnote, we are tempted to make a comment based on
Burnol’s label. One would think that the brand name itself
determines what Burnol’s principal usage position would be.
The label, however, lists ‘Burns’ last in its catalogue of applications
4.Price-quality positioning
This is a simple concept but a powerful one in a developing
economy like that of India. The consumer looks at the
products in a category, at different levels of price, offering
different standards of quality, and decides which price-cumquality level is most suitable for a given need. The importance
of the concept is that consumers in such a heterogeneous
market as ours, have different expectations of quality, are at
different levels of social mobility, and offer the opportunity for
greater price-quality stratification and positioning than in any
other third world country.
Even a cursory glance at outlets or at advertisements will
indicate that far-reaching changes are taking place in the Indian
consumer market. Probably the two most powerful forces
driving this change and making it possible for a thousand pricequality positions to bloom are the ‘demonstration effect’ and
the process of economic develop-ment.
Economic development in India has been uneven and has
taken a zig-zag course, but by 1988, it had put disposable
incomes in the hands of around 250 million consumers. Each
of these consumers, after meeting basic needs, and each
according to the level of his income and social and cultural
status, is avidly looking for things to buy-things put into his
head by the ‘demonstration effect’.
The more fortunate, some six million or so in 1988 alone,
visited foreign lands and returned with suitcases full of goods
for their neighbours to envy. Those who have stayed behind are
affected by the same styles and fashions which they see when
visiting the cinema hall (about 45 million adult audiences in
1988); or watching TV (well over 50 million adult viewers); or
when leafing through the pages of magazines (about 46 million
adult readers); or on the persons and in the homes of their
better-placed fellow citizens and in glittering shop windows.
For every pair of Levi’s or Calvin Klein jeans purchased abroad
there are a hundred other homemade jeans at varying price levels
giving their wearers the sense of being ‘with it’. Adidas and
Nike designs are quickly copied and flood the stalls put up by
pavement vendors. The array of products in the shops of
Hongkong, Singapore and Dubai have spurred numerous
imitations available in India at price levels to suit different strata.
A multinational’s view
It is worth quoting at this juncture, from the ‘Positioning
Strategy’ document of a very successful worldwide packaged
goods company:
In developed markets today there no longer exists such a thing
as a bad product...The notion of cheapness is therefore not
synonymous with poor quality but, on the contrary, implies
‘value for money’.
When the average housewife is more than ever conscious of the
need to buy wisely, marketing men would be well advised to
BRAND POSITIONING
under design- rather than over-design-their packages for daily
consumption goods.
What is true of developed markets is even more true of ours.
Price-quality positions at the top
It is notable that new price-quality positions are opening up in
India not only at the lower and middle levels of the spectrum
but also in the upper ranges.
Take the home construction industry as an example. What has
been most visible in the seventies and eighties is the construction of high-rise blocks offering apartments for sale at varying
prices to middle and upper middle class families. Such construction continues to flourish.
In 1987 an ad appear in the newspares announcing:
Now is the moment for the widely travelled who have seen
gracious living everywhere. A world famous architect styles
exclusive designer homes...
Welcome to the finest concept of the world’s latest living styles.
An internationally acclaimed architect, Ramesh Khosla, expertly
styles designer homes that combine city comforts with the
tranquillity of the countryside. At Garden Estate - India’s first
ever condominium.
Here is the headline of another ad seen in 1988: Only a few very
expensive homes In Kodalkanal.
Milhaven.
Exclusive. Extravagant. Expensive.
Notes
25
LESSON 8
FOR WHOM AM I?
BRAND POSITIONING
13
We have looked at strategies for positioning brands in terms of
corporate identity .or as extensions of familiar brand names
(‘Who am I?’), and also positioning them according to the
brand’s capabilities and benefits (‘What am I?’). We will now
turn to the third aspect, viz. positioning the brand by target
segment (‘For whom am I?).
In this section, we will look at the target segment decision as
another means of giving our brand a distinct position and
identity.
A segment is made up of consumers with more or less similar
needs and expectations from a product and who have some
important similar characteristics. Their responses to product and
brand offerings are also likely to be similar. The factors which
bind such consumers together into a market segment are:
(a) Demographic: Age, income, sex, occupation, education and
sometimes, geographic location,and/or
(b) Behavioural : For instance in terms of usage volume: heavy,
medium, light users, and/or
( c) Benefits or satisfactions desired: We have already studied
this factor, viz.segmentation by benefits sought, and/or
(d) Psychographic: Personality, life style, social class.
As with other aspects of a brand’s capabilities, the brand
manager has flexibility in determining the target segment for
which he will position his brand. His obvious choice will be
that segment for which his brand seems to be just right and will
be better preferred to any competing brand. Through the
process of becoming strongly identified with that segment, his
brand will acquire a distinct identity. Let us look at some
examples.
Demographic Fit
Farex, the easy-to-digest cereal food was initially positioned for
in-fa.nts and also geriatrics and this was reflected in the pack
design at that time. Later, in 1967-68, the brand was very
specifically reposi-tioned as the weaning food for infants from
the age of 3 months to one year. This was reflected in the new
pack design (Exhibit13).
The ads said:
26
3 months onwards, milk alone is not enough. For all-round
growth,
your baby needs Farex, the first step to solid food.
The clear-cut concentration on the age of the user, accompanied
with the strong idea of milk being not enough at that age, gave
the brand a very distict identity and led to a dramatic sales
increase. After this repositioning decision, the sales volume
doubled within the first three years alone. Later, the brand was
overtaken by Cerelac (Nestle) because the product features and
benefits of Cerelac were considered by mothers to be superior.
Take another product category-Ayurvedic tonics like
Chyavanprash. Dabur’s brand is for all ages-grandfather and
grandchild alike. Zandu Special Chyavanprash, which is more
expensive, is explicitly positioned for families with small
children with the reasoning that the housewife would be more
willingto spend that much extra if she believed that Zandu
Special really built up the resistance of her children to coughs
and colds.
On the other hand there may be demographic segments for
which no brand has been suitably designed or positioned. This
can well happen in a changing society like ours. The far-sighted
marketer tries to track emerging demographic changes which
Behavioural fit
You are no doubt familiar with the concept of heavy, medium
and light users. There is that phrase about the ‘heavy half’,
meaning that a small fraction of consumers (of a product type
or brand) account for a proportionately much higher percentage
of its sales. (With beer, for example, about 30% drinkers would
account for about 80% of sales.) It makes good sense, therefore, to study the heavy-user segment and to position for them
brands that best satisfy their high volume consumption.
In the USA, Johnson & Johnson did this with great success.
They found that the heavy user of shampoo, one who shampoos often, prefers a mild product. The company saw market
share move up from 3 to 14% when they broadened the
positioning of their shampoo from one used for babies to one
that is also best suited for those who wash their hair frequently
and therefore need the kind of mildness in their shampoo
which they can be sure of.You may have also heard of:
Schaefer, the one beer to have when you are having more than
one.We certainly do observe marketers adopting other elements
of the mix to target the heavy user: larger packings which work
out to lower unit. prices for the heavy user; promotional offers
which give special incentives to those using a product or service
frequently.
Satisfaction fit
The marketer seeks to identify consumer segments that are
linked together by the benefit or satisfaction which they demand
from a product type. He develops or modifies his brand and
positions it to be just right for that particular benefit seeking
segment.
The Complan and Horlicks user households have fairly similar
demographic profiles. At one stage in the history of Complan it
was thought that the benefits consumers sought were also
identical and Complan was positioned accordingly. It became a
slugging match between ‘the great nourisher’ (Horlicks) and
‘the greatest nourisher’ (Complan).
The strategy was changed later to pick out those housewives
and mothers (the decision maker) who were looking for a
different benefit from their health beverage-the benefit of
complete nourishment for members of her family in specific
27
situations, especially her growing children. Complan had found
its niche.We have seen that well-made products are versatile and
give the brand manager flexibility in his positioning decisions.
The target segment decision itself can be a differentiating
strategy for similar products. One protein-rich biscuit can be
positioned for school children as part of their noon-day meal.
Another simiiar product can be positioned for convalescents.
A Farex-like product with a different brand name can be
positioned for the elderly.
Psychographic fit
Positioning a brand to match the psychographic characteristics
of a segment takes us into a more esoteric area. Nevertheless
such match-ing of brand and segment is often the key to
differentiate products such as cigarettes, textile fabrics, beauty
and fashion products like cosmetics and apparel and even
footwear.
Cigarettes: Gold Flake Filter Kings and Classic are so close to
one another in price and physical characteristics that it would be
virtually impossible to differentiate them in terms of demographic segments or benefits. Both are ITC brands. The only
effective strategy of differentiation is to position them for
segments which are demarcated one from the other by psychographic characteristics.
Soft drinks: Campa Cola and Thums-Up, as cola drinks, are
un-derstandably positioned for the same demographic segments by in-come and age. One would have expected them to
demarcate their respective segments in terms of personality and
life style. Judging from their commercials, they appear to be
positioned for identical segments in terms of such characteristics as well.
Footwear: By contrast, Bata has positioned its several brands of
‘athileisure’ and sports footwear for four segments which are
visibly distinct in their life styles.
North Star is positioned for the younger generation which
favours a more relaxed, easy going and informal life style, “the
shoes for easy :iving”.
Power Jogger was announced in its first commercial with the
words, “the birth of the fitness cult”. It was positioned for
those people, young and not so young, who had been caught
up in the ‘fitness fever’
Then came a much more advanced sports footwear in the
Power range, technically named the PU Shoe. The task was to
position this shoe for another segment with the least cannibalization from the Power Jogger. Bata decided to brand one
version as Power Ultimo and position it uncompromisingly as
the specialist tennis shoe for the tennis enthusiast.
The other version, slightly modified and less costly, was
branded as Power Workout and positioned for athletes who take
their workouts seriously and for whom physical training is a
must. They were regarded as the primary segment.
To achieve sales volume targets, the secondary segment was
defined as those who also go in for physical training because
“keeping their body in shape” is a serious goal. This segment
also embraced the many tens of thousands of starry-eyed
‘emulators’, who idolize sports stars and identify themselves
with an athletic lifestyle. See the ads for the three versions of
Power.
Concentration
As with other elements of positioning, specificity in choosing
the target segment for a brand generally pays a higher dividend.
Even a large- share market leader is vulnerable to competitive
BRAND POSITIONING
may influence his brand postioning decisions. The Clarion
Urban Housewife study, for instance, throws some light on an
emerging occupational segment--the white collar or middle-class
working housewife-which is growing in numbers and purchasing power. As yet, few brands are positioned directly for this
high-potential segment. The study observes:
One key insight from the study is that the working housewife
feels guilty about not having enough time for her husband and
children. This can be a strong motivator to bring into her home
products that can help her to ‘look after’ home and children in a
more rewarding way despite the demands of her job. Cooking
is affected-there is less variety, say many husbands of working
wives. Marketers of instant/fast foods, please note.
Stretching one’s imagination a little, why can’t private enterprise
-which already runs schools and hospitals-also get into the
business of Day-Care Centres for the children of working
housewives? Housewives did evince a good measure of interest
for this service as well as for a Domestic Servant Agency.
LESSON 9
WHY ME?
BRAND POSITIONING
Throughout this chapter we have looked at the various ways to
achieve this differential advantage for our brand. At the end of
the day, we would have identified our particular target segment;
isolated the usage occasion for which our brand fits the bill;
selected the benefit which will make our brand more suitable
than others for that target segment, for that usage; and found a
price-quality equation that strengthens our competitive standing. “The buyer’s mind”, says C Merle Crawford, “is a memory
blank with slots or positions for each competing alternative” .
By now we should have crafted and ‘machined’ our brand, so to
speak, so that it fits a particular slot in that buyer’s mind more
snugly than any other alternative. By now we should have given
him or her the answer to the question: “Why me?”, the reason
why he or she should select our brand in preference to any
other.Do we need anything else? Do we need a ‘clincher’,
Positioning by unique attribute
There are some companies (Procter & Gamble, Hindustan
Lever, Nestle, Nirma) who will not market a product unless
they have endowed it with some unique feature or benefit that
makes it superior to competition. This unique feature becomes
the clinching reason-why- the ‘Support’, as it is called-to claim
the consumer’s preference.
This is the relevance of positioning a brand by its features or
attributes: giving the brand a differential advantage because of
some unique or exclusive feature or attribute that translates into
a benefit for the consumer. See the ad for Avanti Nova Moped
(Exhibit14) and Lipton’s Lal Kila ‘pouch tea’ where the
14
28
15
differentiating feature is the packaging which helps to reduce
price (Exhibit15).
Positioning by competitor
Marketing has been likened to warfare. ‘Positioning by competitor’ is an offensive strategy to deal with the question: “Why
me?”
A special kind of clinching argument as to why our brand
should be preferred is through direct comparison with the
competitor we wish to dislodge.
The most widely quoted example is that of Avis, the car-rental
service in the USA, which positioned itself vis-a-vis the market
leader, Hertz. Avis gave a powerful promise to its prospect:
We try harder because we are No.2.
This positioning strategy succeeded, say Trout and Ries, because
“it related No.2 Avis to No.1 Hertz on the product ladder in the
prospect’s mind; it also capitalized on the natural sympathy
people have for the underdog.”
Another form of positioning with respect to a competitor is
through the use of comparison advertising of which we see a
growing amount in India. Here, the competitor is explicitly
named or shown in a masked form which everybody can
recognize, and the respective attributes are compared to prove
that ‘our’ brand is superior.
See, for example, the ad for Anikspray milk powder (Exhibit16)
and Lakme Winter Care Lotion
BRAND POSITIONING
16
Notes
Strategy is ‘holistic’
In practice, the step-by-step positioning decisions should end
up by presenting a whole picture of the brand. The consumer
should be able to. comprehend it as a complete entity.
She should be able to perceive the type of product it is: Is it
meant to be a snack or a fast-to-cook mini meal (Category)?
For what usage is it most suitable-as an antiseptic for burns or
nicks and cuts (Usage)?
What is the particular benefit which distinguishes it from
alterna-tives? Is it a cold cream plus moisturiser in one (Benefit)?
Is it a good value-for-money product or a top quality premium
offering?What is its rung on the price-quality ladder?
She should be able to identify with it as a product meant for
her. Having formed her perception or impression of the brand
as a whole, including any unique features and how it compares
with alternatives, she should be able to give it a place or
position in her mental map of products. She should be able to
decide whether to put it on her shopping list.
In his search for differentiation, the brand manager would
probably find that the unique perception of his brand can be
created through a particular combination of the positioning
factors that we have dis-cussed.
Thus, Vicks VapoRub was distinguished from its major
competitor, Amrutanjan, through a combination of usage,
target, benefit and time of use positioning. In Chapter 6 we will
discuss in some detail Vicks VapoRub and three other cases
which illustrate this ‘holistic’ ap-proach to brand positioning.
29
LESSON 10
SYMBOLS BY WHICH WE LIVE AND
BUY
BRAND POSITIONING
Positioning with non-functional values:
We buy products to satisfy some physical and material needs.
But once the most basic and primitive needs are met—hunger,
thirst, shelter, safety-we look to products for some other
rewards as well.
The average middle-class family in urban India probably
manages with rice bought from the ration shop for most of the
family meals. But when guests are invited, the hostess would
stretch her budget to buy the far more expensive Basmati rice.
Not only does Basmati rice make a better dish in terms of
flavour, looks and taste but it also earns
for the hostess a reward that she particularly values: the esteem
of her guests.
As if made to illustrate this point, an ad for Sohna Golden
Basmati Rice portrays a wedding situation with friends dressing
up a bride-to-be. The headline says Great Occasions Demand It
and the copy reads in part:
Some moments are just so rare. So special. Everything’s got to
be just right. Even the rice you use must be the best.. .Sohna
rice.. .No lesser grain dare share your most precious moments.
As a sizable section of our society graduates from the ration
shop or basic needs level to a somewhat higher standard, more
and more products must offer not only physical or functional
satisfaction but psychological or non-functional rewards as well.
The concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is relevant to us in
this context. These needs, in order of urgency or importance,
are: physiological needs; safety needs, social needs (belonging
and love), esteem and status needs, and finally, the highest
order of needs-those for self-actualization. The non-func-tional
values of brands must satisfy our social and esteem needs.
Brands are symbols:
Products take on symbolic meaning and we buy them as much
for their physical benefits as their symbolic or non-functional
ones. This is self-evident when we look at ‘badge’ products,
that is, products which we use in public and whose symbolic
meaning rubs off on ourselves is the eyes of the beholder.
When a teenager buys a pair of jeans he is not only buying
denim slacks but a label which he will display to the world on
his derrier That label-call it Levi’s, if you will- carries a symbolic
meaning for himself, his friends and peers. He is quite ready to
pay, and does pay thrice as much for that symbolic meaning
than for an identical pair jeans which has an obscure label or
none at all. It would be incomplete to think that such symbolic
meaning attach only to products of conspicuous consumption.
They apply to ‘closet products as well, products whose identity
is known only to the USI Others will see the result from the use
of that product but will not know-unless they ask- what its
name is.That attractive male in the commercial ‘smelt terrific’, as
a lady admirer says, but she does not know the secret. The
30
UNIT 2
VARIOUS FACETS OF BRAND
POSITIONING
commercial takes us into confidence and tells us it was due to
Aramusk toilet soap. over and above the physical qualities of
that brand, it is being purposefully endowed with symbolic
meanings: Maleness, Success, Self-indulge.
The housewife, hitherto satisfied with washing her children’s
school uniforms in Surf, takes on the additional chore of giving
them the last dip in Robin Liquid not only because she thinks it
would add extra, whiteness but also because it makes her feel
like an extra-conscientious mother who spares no effort for the
good grooming of her family.
That brands have symbolic meanings was known to academics
practitioners over 40 years ago. Quite often, this symbolic
meaning, was referred to as the brand image.
In 1949, James S Duesenberry, discussing the theory of
consumer behaviour, put forward the concept that consumption as ‘symbolic behaviour’ may be more important to the
individual than the functional benefits provided by the brand, a
remarkably astute and perceptive view from an
economist.Advertising for a brand should be considered in
terms of its “symbolic and indirect meanings” as well as its
literal communica-tion
Modern goods are psychological things. The products people
buy are “symbolic of personal attributes and goals.” They have
personal and social meanings in addition to their functions...a
purchase involves an assessment to decide whether the symbolism fits or not..According to David Ogilvy,:
Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to
the complex symbol which is the brand image.
Stronger bonding with emotions
When the consumer looks around at packaged goods today, she
finds quite a few that are ‘good enough’. It is this which leads
to her ‘short-list’ or ‘evoked set’ of brands—those which she
considers more or less equal in performance and functional
benefits. She will make her brand choice from this short-list.
With undifferentiated functional benefits to draw upon, she
may even vary her purchases among this short-list; functional
benefits alone may not forge a strong enough bond between a
parity brand and the consumer. The USP is an elusive
pimpernel.Advertising strategists or planners, but even more so
the creative people in an advertising agency, are looking for
unique emotional values to add to the brand. They are looking
for ways to create emotional involvement because this represents the stronger bonding area between brand and target
consumer.Moreover, when differentiated positioning based on
physical fea-tures and functional benefits becomes less feasible
and less persuasive, we have to look for differential advantage
on the basis of non-func-tional or emotional and psychological
values of the brand. Symbolisms and symbolic meaning
become the instruments for differentiation and for forging this
emotional bond with the brand.
The importance of such symbolism in brand choice goes up as
Self-concept and preferred brands:
In markets offering a wide range of automobiles, a car owner
sees his automobile as an extension of himself. Research has
supported this intuitive judge-ment. Reporting on a study of
choice of automobile models in the USA, AlE Birdwell
concludes that there is a high degree of congruency between the
owner’s perception of himself and the car he buys: “Automobiles are often extensions of the owner’s image of self. “
This self-concept or self-image, is a blend made up of the
person’s basic physical and emotional characteristics; of the
image of his ‘real’ self; and of his ‘ideal’self-the self he would
like to be-which. includes his aspirations. From this theory the
following patterns of buying behaviour may be predicted.
Thus, a consumer would:
• Buy products consistent with self-image.
• .Avoid products inconsistent with self-image.
• Trade up to products that enhance self-image.
Most branded products, as we have seen, have a physical as well
as a symbolic character. Driving much of the consumer’s
purchasing behaviour is the judgement as to whether a given
brand, both as a physical product and a symbol, is congruent
with his or her self-image. In short, at the heart of our buying
activity is the urge to match our self-image with the image of
our most preferred or favoured brand.
In everyday advertising practice we use another term. When an
ad has been developed, we ask ourselves: “Will our target
consumer identify with this ad?” “Will it urge him to identify
with the brand?” At the root of this question is the theory of
congruence with self- concept.
Therefore, in positioning a brand with its non-functional
values, that is, positioning it with its symbolic meaning, we
must ensure that such symbolism helps to support the selfconcept of the target con-sumer. All the elements of the
marketing mix must communicate to the target prospect the
desired clues for consumer perception and thus create the
desired symbolic meaning for the brand.
Brand images are frequently studied in our market. We would
expect that where ego-involvement is high in a purchasing
action, marketers would also try to get a fix on the target
prospect’s self-concept.
The major brands are all made with Japanese collaboration:
TVS-Suzuki; Hero-Honda; Bajaj-Kawasaki; and EscortsYamaha. There are some func-tional or feature differences
among these brands but they may not appear considerable.
One can put forward the hypothesis that the motorcycle rider
sees his mobike as “an extension of himself” and that the
symbolism which he perceives in these brands, more than
minor functional differences, would influence his choice.
Thus, the very arithmetical TVS-Suzuki ad comparing. its
features with those of Hero Honda would stop those motorcyclists who see themselves as very rational and dispassionate,
who have confidence in their mechanical know-how, and who
pride themselves on being cost-conscious. It may leave cold the
young man to whom his mobike means the exhilaration of
speed, a dash of adventure and the occasional spice of danger.
What clues for consumer interpretation and symbolic meaning
are being given by these mobikes in their respective ads? Look at
them in magazines and TV and try to differentiate them in
terms of a match between brand symbolism and image, and
the target consumer’s self-image.
The conscious effort to match the brand symbolism being
created and the self-concept of the target consumer is more
apparent when we look at ads for two new racing bicycles.
The ad for BSA Mach 10 (Exhibit 10-1)shows the sleek,
gleaming machine against a black background and the headline
proclaims it as ‘Elegant by Sight, Electric in Flight’. It seems to
be .flagging the flamboyant teenager who sees himself as
dashing and macho, who has an electric vision of himself
flashing past at a speed which draws ooh’s and ah’s from his
admirers. As the ad says, it’s the “Macho Mach... waiting for a
bit of muscle”.
10-1
Ex:2
Departing from packaged goods and looking at the 100 cc
motorcycle market in India, we see a remarkable opportunity for
creating brand symbolisms that would reflect the differing selfconcepts of their target segments. Indeed, one may hypothesize
that market segmenta-tion itself should be done on the basis
of differing self-concepts of motorcycle riders.
31
BRAND POSITIONING
the ‘rationality’ of the buying decision goes down. There is
comparatively more ‘rationality’ (or Samajdari as Lalitaji calls it
in the Surf com-mercial) in purchasing laundry detergent
powder for instance, and, much less in buying cigarettes,
cosmetics, beer, soft drinks, fashion apparel, and the like.
Of the many theories and ideas surrounding brand symbolism
there are two, we believe, which have conceptual strength and
operational utility. These are the concepts of ‘brand personality’
and of the ‘congruence’ or match between ‘self-concept’ and
most preferred brand. We will discuss the latter first.
BRAND POSITIONING
The Hero Hawk is for youngsters—and others slightly older-for
whom cycling is a passion. They are concerned keenly about the
technical features of their bike. They like to pit themselves
against a superb machine and test their own limits. They can’t
wait for the weekend to stuff their backpacks and set off with a
buddy to “push the horizon”
(Exhibit 10-2)
10-2
There is another refreshing example. The Bajaj M-50 is a
glorified moped. A recent commercial by Lintas—an award
winner, by the way-is a spoof on a detective made famous by a
TV serial, Karom-chand. He is seen jumping onto his M-50 and
giving chase to evildoers who are on the run on their motorcycle; he overtakes them and knocks them down! And so, the
Bajaj M-50 is for the young man who sees himself as a ‘regular
motorcycle guy’-goggles, leather jacket, helmet and all-but, alas,
he cannot afford one. But when he kicks the starter of his M-50,
he fancies his machine to be the equal of any motorcycle!
The Hero Hawk is for youngsters—and others slightly older-for
whom cycling is a passion. They are concerned keenly about the
technical features of their bike. They like to pit themselves
against a superb machine and test their own limits. They can’t
wait for the weekend to stuff their backpacks and set off with a
buddy to “push the horizon” (Exhibit 5-3 (Plate 5 ».
There is another refreshing example. The Bajaj M-50 is a
glorified moped. A recent commercial by Lintas—an award
winner, by the way-is a spoof on a detective made famous by a
TV serial, Karom-chand. He is seen jumping onto his M-50 and
giving chase to evildoers who are on the run on their motorcycle; he overtakes them and knocks them down! And so, the
Bajaj M-50 is for the young man who sees himself as a ‘regular
motorcycle guy’-goggles, leather jacket, helmet and all-but, alas,
he cannot afford one. But when he kicks the starter of his M-50,
he fancies his machine to be the equal of any motorcycle!
32
Notes
The second concept that we will take up is that of ‘brand
personality’. This is a highly promising concept, both in theory
and practical relevance, when it comes to positioning brands
with non-functional values.
Many brand strategy statements nowadays refer to the ‘character’
or ‘personality’ of the brand under discussion. However, brand
managers writing these statements often tend to define
‘character’ for several brands in the Company’s line in more or
less identical terms. For example, for many OTC remedies, the
brand character is monotonously described as ‘caring’ and
‘efficient’. From me-too product features we may end up with
me-too brand personalities. For nutritional products aimed at
children, and even for laundry deter-gents, we encounter again
and again the character/personality of the ‘caring mother’ and
‘conscientious housewife’.
The purpose of positioning by brand personality is lost if we
are unable to define a desired ‘personality’ for our brand which
is clearly distinct from the personalities of competing brands
and sister brands in our own product line.
Image vs. personality:
Thus, King views the.’totality of the brand’ as the ‘brand
personality’. He explains this further:
The added values (of a brand) will tend increasingly to be nonfunctional values. But they will only work if they are blended
with the physical and functional values to form an integrated
brand personality’.We believe that
The so-called ‘character’ of a brand and its ‘personality’ hold the
same meaning. But the image of the brand, in our view, has a
different connotation from its personality.
The brand image represents the essence of all the impressions
or imprints about the brand that have been made on the
consumer’s mind. It includes impressions about its physical
features and perfor-mance; impressions about the functional
benefits from using it; impressions about the kind of people
who use it; the emotions and associations aroused by it; the
imagery and symbolic meanings it evokes in the consumer’s
mind-and this includes imagery of the brand in human terms,
as if it were a person.
The brand image is indeed the ‘totality’ of the brand in the
percep-tion of the consumer. It is truly a ‘complex symbol’ and
defies over-simplifications that equate it to one of its ‘bits’-like
its physical features, for example, or its emotional associations
alone.
Personality, we think, is that aspect of the brand’s totality which
brings up in the consumer’s mind its emotional overtones and
its symbolisms-its characterization, if you will. The great
operational utility of the brand personality concept is that when
the consumer cannot distinguish brands by their physical
features or functional benefits, he is invited to look at their socalled human characteristics. It makes his task simpler in judging
whether it’s his kind of product; it makes it easier for the
consumer to deal with the question, as Plummer of Young and
Rubicam puts it: “Do I see myself in the brand?””
In brief the brand image represents the totality of impressions
about the brand as selected and adapted by the consumer’s
perception. It embraces the brand’s physical and function-al
aspects and also its symbolic meanings. The brand personality,
on the other hand, dwells mainly in these symbolic aspects.
With differentiated products, the functional benefits of the
brand plus its imagery or symbolism help the consumer to
make the all-im-portant judgement: “This is my kind of
product.”
With undifferentiated or functionally equal products, the
sym-bolic aspects of the brand-the brand personality-must bear
the brunt of consumer persuasion. It must match the target
prospect’s self-concept -”1 see the brand in myself’-rather better
than com-peting brands.
At the same time, we must respect and acknowledge the fact
that seasoned practitioners continue to use the two terms
interchangeably. But whichever term they favour, they include in
it the totality of the brand as seen by the consumer.
Do consumers respond?
When you have a good, clear idea of your target consumer, of
his or her self-concept, it is possible to think of a personality for
your brand which will have congruence with that consumer’s
self-image.
We know that advertising planners and creative people breathe
life into a brand, give it a human face, But is this a fantasy that
exists only in the advertising person’s head? Can it really turn on
a consumer or will he simply ignore it?
Stephen King, firmly believes that con-sumers value brands for
who they are as much as for what they do. They can and do see
brands as personalities. He then quotes comments from
housewives in the UK who were simply asked to imagine
certain brands as people.
Toilet soapsLifebuoy
Interviewer:“What about Lifebuoy, if that became a person?”
Housewife D :“That’s an older man, about fiftyish, somebody
whosechildren are growing up-a very steady job and looking
forward to retirement”
Housewife A :”I think the sporty type of man, who is always
on the tennis courts,”
Housewife E :”A male worker in his twenties-a dirty job,
mining or something. “
Interviewer: “What would he be like as a neighbour?”
Housewife E : “Oh, I should think he would be very good, but
people may take him wrongly because he is so abrupt But
underneath it all he is kind-hearted.”
Who creates brand personality:
33
BRAND POSITIONING
LESSON 11
BRAND PERSONALITY
BRAND POSITIONING
Who creates brand personalities? Where do they spring from?
Is there a ‘process’? Perhaps the most famous brand personality
of all time is that of Marlboro. Let us turn now to David
Ogilvy who has created more successful and widely recognized
brand personalities than any other creative person. Here is an
account of one such famous personality: the Hathaway man.
Hathaway, the manufacturer of this brand of shirts, hired
Ogilvy’s agency in 1951. These shirts were sold at a few of the
highest-priced men’s stores and ads were usually released in the
Trade Press to impress salesmen and buyers. Ellerton Jeffe,
then President of the Hathaway Company, told Ogilvy: “We
cannot spend much money. Our account will be less than $
30,000 a year. If you will take it on, I will make you a promise: I
will never change a word of your copy.”
Recalling the incident, Ogilvy says that he ‘blanched’ at the
amount, “but how can you say no to an offer like that? You can
bloody well believe I worked hard on that account.”
Ogilvy says, that when he got the Hathaway advertising
business, he was determined to give them “a campaign that
would be better than Young & Rubicam’s historic campaign for
Arrow shirts.” And he had to do this on a budget of $ 30,000
against Arrow’s $ 2,000,000. As he writes, “a miracle was
required”. How does one develop a campaign after one ad?
Ogilvy says in his book:
“I showed the model in a series of situations in which I would
have liked to find myself: Conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, playing the oboe, copying a Goya at the
Metropolitan Museum, driving a tractor, fencing, sailing...and so
forth.”
Thus is a brand personality born and shaped. As you can see,
Ogilvy was able to put himself creatively in the target
consumer’s skin; he was able to dream up a ‘personality’ that
would match the self-concept of those consumers.
Sales went up from below $ 2 million in 1950 to $ 30 million
after 10 years of the campaign. ogilvy writes in the 1987 Preface
to his book, “My eye patch campaign for Hathaway shirts ran
for twenty-nine years” .
The strategist lays down the marketing parameters; for example:
a very expensive man’s shirt; excellent quality of fabric, stitching
and style; a variety of patterns and colours; available at selected
stores; and then briefly defines the target consumer and his selfconcept. Hathaway was positioned chiefly against Arrow shirts.
The ‘design centre’ which then turns out the brand personality
is the creative individual’s imagination. In exceptional cases,
apart from the strategy, the brand personality, too, may be
created by a marketing man or even a company president who
has the rare gift of intuition. That is how the personality of
another famous brand, Charlie perfume, was created. Below are
highlighted several of the key positioning and creative decisions
taken by Charles Revson, President of the Revlon Company in
the USA, which launched Charlie in 1973.
. Revson was quite certain that women wanted a ‘lifestyle’
product built around a ‘liberated’ image.
. He felt that women would be attracted by a perfume with a
man’sname so he called it ‘Charlie’ -his own name.
. He had the perfume formulated again and again before he was
satisfied.The brand was launched in 1973, built around the
Charlie image which Revson had sketched. Almost overnight,
Charlie became the best selling American fragrance.
‘Input’ and ‘take-away’
Advertisers and advertising agencies in India are well aware of
the concept of brand personality, but with some exceptions,
less so, perhaps, of the need to track the difference or the ‘fit’
between the advertiser’s ‘input’ and the target consumer’s ‘takeaway’.
The ‘input’, as the phrase suggests, is the ‘personality’ that the
marketer wishes to attach to his brand. The ‘take-away’ is the
impres-sion of that personality which actually enters the target
consumer’s head.
In March 1989, several students at the Indian Institute of
Manage-ment, Calcutta (IIMC), conducted small-scale surveys
on the per-sonalities of various brands, as part of their course
on Advertising Management. Without laying claims to statistical
validity, these pilot studies did bring up some interesting
observations and insights on what consumers are actually
‘taking away’.
Instant coffee
In one such study, Nescafe was compared to Gold Cafe-both
100% pure instant coffees, both heavily advertised and both
premium- priced .
Thirteen female and eight male respondents on campus were
interviewed, using a ‘loosely structured’ format with openended
questions. The respondents were asked to describe the personality of the brands in terms of ‘Mr Nescafe’ and ‘Mr Gold Cafe’.
This group of respondents (Group A) based their observations mainly on the advertising of the two brands to which
they had been exposed. Another group of respondents , eleven
in all (Group B) made observa-tions based also on other factors
such as history of the company, ‘marketing strategy’, etc. One
might describe them as an ‘MBA Group’. We report above
extracts of the findings from the first group (Group A) because
these reflect the consumer’s point of view better
Mr Nescafe
He is visualized as a young man belonging to the Upper middle
Class. He
is well educated and professionally qualified. He is ambitious
and ‘wants to go places’. His ambition is backed by competence;
he is of high caliber and full of self-confidence. He is an
outgoing character and the milieu in
which he lives calls for a lifestyle of doing the “in-things”
,buying designer garments, etc. He is more likely to read Robert
Ludlum and Arthur Hailey and has no serious inclination
towards art and culture.’
As a young man on the move, he takes more than a passing
interest in his health and plays games like squash, tennis, etc.
On the whole he emerges as a fun-loving, westernized,
upwardly- mobile person, keeping up with the times. ‘
Mr. Gold café
“our respondents” says the study report, “more often than not
preferred to refer to Mr. Gold Café as a ‘gentleman’, rather than
34
BRAND POSITIONING
a ‘guy’. There seemed to be a subdued sense of awe while
describing this person”.
Mr. Gold Cafe was pictured as an older person , possibly
graying at the temples and excluding sophistication.
Professionally he has achieved much in terms of prestige within
his organization as also financial standing. He continues to nurse
higher ambitions. he is a man of experience who has learnt to
control his emotions. his sophistication is expressed in his finer
tastes, appreciation of art and classical music. Being a person of
middle age, he does not indulge in rigorous physical work-outs
but prefers games like golf to keeping shape.
The overall picture that emerges is one of a sophisticated, rich,
and middle aged professional with fine taste and impeccable
social grace.
Notes
35
LESSON 12
A FRESH LOOK AT ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES
BRAND POSITIONING
Significance of advertising
Today advertising has taken a quantum leap beyond just
salesmanship of products in print. It is the art of persuasion
of human minds through a whole range of communication
media. The bottom line of advertising is to sell by creating
positive impressions about a product, service or a concept.
Advertising today ranges from the basics like selling salt to the
most abstract like selling polio vaccination.
Advertising must position the brand
Till the term ‘salesmanship in print’ was coined, advertising was
seen as ‘information dissemination’. The manufacturer and the
advertising agent communicated the facts about a product and
the consumer rushed out and bought the product. Simple.
.‘Salesmanship’ added a whole new dimension to the advertising process. Ads could now ‘sell’. Ads needed to use all the fine
persuasive skills of a salesman to sell. The art of persuasion in
advertising was unleashed and advertising has never been the
same again.What is the role of advertising in the context of
positioning? A landmark definition of advertising was
developed for the Association of National Advertisers of the
USA by Russel H Colley. It brought a greater degree of clarity to
management thinking on advertising decisions. It em-phasized
that advertising pulls a consumer towards purchasing action
through changes in his or her knowledge and attitude responses. It laid the foundation for a practical and widely used
model: DAGMAR or ‘Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results’.’
Colley’s definition is:Advertising is mass, paid communication,
the ultimate purpose of which is to impart information,
develop attitude and induce action beneficial to the advertisergenerally the sale of a product or service.This is a
comprehensive definition. You cannot fault it.But we could
attempt another definition that is more operational, that
specifically takes into account a competitive marketplace, and
that recognizes the increasing difficulty of creating distinct brand
identities. We could say, for example:advertising is the discovery
and communication of a persuasive difference for a brand to
the target prospect.There are three critical elements here.
Advertising must communi-cate a difference for the brand. It
must be a competitive and persuasive difference. Such a difference
may not fall into the ommunicator’s lap in the form of a
readymade USP. In the absence of strong functional superiority
or distinction, he must search and discover where such persuasive
differentiation lies.
Brand building
Management thinkers today strongly believe that the customer
is king. The single most important job in marketing is the job
of creating and retaining a customer. Numerous research
studies across the world have proven that the best way of
36
creating and retaining customers is by building strong brands.
Now what are brands? Products? Enhanced products? Products
with names? In a simple equation:
Brand = product+images
A brand is more, much more than the mere product it stands
for. A brand is the amalgam of the physical product and the
notional images that go with the brand. When we recall a brand,
not only do we recall the physicality of the product but also the
images it conjures.
Sundrop
Sunflower Oil + (Healthy family
+ Happy Children + Loving Mother
+ Tasty Food + Modern Home +)
Lml Vespa
= Scooter + (Style + Extra Power + Macho
Image + Great Looks + International)
Godrej Storwel
= Steel Cupboard + (Lasting Value + Premium
+ Care + Family Heirloom)
Salesmanship to brand building
The hub of advertising today is to go beyond mere selling.
Advertising has to create those positive images that linger in the
consumer’s mind and lead to ‘brand’ building. Advertising that
only sells will end up, in today’s market environment, merely
creating commodity brands. The task of advertising today,
therefore, is to sell and simultaneously endow the brand with
all those positive values that will make it more attractive to the
target consumers.
The global market place is littered with skeletons of brands that
died too soon. The Indian market is no exception. For instance
if one were to count the failures in categories like soaps alone,
the number would be incredibly high. But is it all due to
advertising? Well not fully. However, advertising could have
saved a number of those brands by resorting to focussed
‘brand building advertising’, because it is the kind of advertising that sells today and builds enduring brand values over time.
Brand building advertising is not an accident or a mere fluke. It
is an orchestrated attempt to use the right processes and
procedures by a team of well-trained people, of total teamwork
with the other agency teams (servicing, creative, planning,
media) and client teams (brand management, development
etc.).
Brand building is a result of this teamwork and understanding.
Brand building advertising is the right blend of ‘sell’ and ‘build
value’, the yin and yang of advertising. This calls for a lot of
patience and understanding from clients, and for sustained hard
work and creative efforts from the agency team.
Advertising process: guidelines
Advertising is an element of the marketing mix and hence
advertising objectives are derived per se from the organisation’s
marketing objectives. ) From objectives we move on to
advertising strategy and advertising.) execution. But great
advertising often needs the agency to go back several stages.
Back to the base camp. To level zero.
Better advertising is born out of a total understanding of all
the variables impacting the brand. It may be new consumer
trends, new competition, or new technological breakthroughs.’
Brand building advertising is created.. only after a cohesive
interface between the A-B-C-D-E of analysis. Such advertising
is often right on strategy. But great advertising gives strategy the
golden glow of creativity. The skin care benefit gets the golden
glow of ‘mistaken identity’
Setting objectives
Advertising objectives are usually set, at present, in terms of
aware-ness, knowledge or comprehension of benefit and the
degree of con-viction or buying intention for the brand. This is
basically the DAGMAR model. Colley gives several hypothetical
examples. To take one.
One of the smaller overseas airlines, based in the USA, set itself
the target of increasing passenger loadings by 10%. To this end,
the advertising goal was defined as communicating the image
of a luxury airline to an additional 20% of target prospects in
one year. Benchmark and post-campaign surveys revealed the
following:
Brand images before and after a campaign are often studied in
India and expressed in profile charts However, such
meas-urements of an ad campaign do not capture, in a manner
usable by the manager, the relative positions of our brand
versus major competitors on the critical dimensions; neither do
they give us a practical fix on how close our brand has moved to
its desired spot in the consumer’s perception, following the
campaign.
The Dagmar model for testing pre- and post-exposure
comprehen-sion of the brand benefit and the ad campaign’s
ability to persuade-as in the example given by Colley-has on its
side, simplicity and ease of application. But it also fails to track
our brand’s movement in the consumer’s perception in relation
to competing brands and in relation to the ideal which our target
segment is seeking.
Measuring results and position change
Using MDS (Multidimensional Scaling) techniques, Smith and
Lusch tracked the positions of various brands before and after
the new campaign. Here we shall summarize what they found
among two samples of smokers: One was the control sample
in a region where the new campaign was not released, and the
other was an experimental sample where the repositioning
exercise was on and respondents were exposed to the new
campaign.
How does advertising works?
Foote, Cone & Belding, America’s number one agency, did
pioneering work in the 1970s to understand how advertising
works, to build brands, for both consumer products and
durables. The model they developed has been much written
about as the FCB Grid.
The model proposes that consumers have different degrees of
involvement with their product/brand purchases and we can
categorize them as ‘high’ and ‘low’. For instance, in the Indian
setting, salt implies low involvement while cooking oil implies
high involvement. Further, the model suggests that consumers
do not always act rationally. Their behaviour is often a mix of
rational (thinking) and emotional (feeling) reasons. For
instance, the purchase of a soft drink is going to be dictated
more by feelings than thinking and the case is just the opposite
in the case of, say, a detergent powder. The model went on to
suggest that depending on the product type we can fine tune
our advertising to work harder.
High Involvement
• Thinking : Informative
• Feeling
: Affective
Low Involvement
Thinking : Habitual
Feeling
: Satisfaction
Applying the grid to the Indian context we could slot products
into broad quadrants:
•
•
I : Automobiles, TVs
II : Perfumes, Cosmetics
III : Pain balms, Detergents
37
BRAND POSITIONING
LESSON 13
HOW TO CREATE BRAND BUILDING ADVERTISING?
BRAND POSITIONING
IV : Confectionery
Often it makes sense to look at the quadrant, see what kind of
advertising would work, look at competitive advertising and
then decide the path to follow. At times, brands have been built
by going just about a little ‘off centre’ and stretching the limit.
Brand building advertising
Consumer product advertising is probably the most researched
form of advertising. It also eminently makes sense to research it
thoroughly sincein no other product does advertising comprise
such a large part of investment. However, it is necessary to
research advertising for consumer products with a lot more
sensitivity. Often we are dealing with ‘feefings’ and human
emotions. Unless we are careful, it is likely that great brand
building advertising would get rejected by a group of women
sitting in a room, sipping tea in a remote town like
Muzzafarpur.
The usual process of advertising testing in consumer products
is lengthy and often well-documented.
A large part of consumer product advertising today is on
television. This makes testing all the more difficult. However
much you try, you can never create the magic of the final
commercial in a ‘ripomatic’ or an ‘animatic’ story board. Hence
each brand needs its own advertising ‘look and feel’. Research, at
best, will give vital clues on how consumers will react to the
final commercial.
Brand tracking
In no other product category can one ‘track’ brand equities as
well as one can in consumer products. This is probably because
in India customized off-the-shelf brand tracking studies are
available primarily for consumer products. Further, given the
parity status across brands, the brand tracking studies give a
marketeer and the agency a reading of brand health and
potential. While brand tracking studies are important across any
brand advertising, they are of major importance in consumer
products, for the
reasons mentioned above. Brand tracks help keep a track of the
brand in the key consumers’ minds covering:
• Top of the Mind Awareness
• Unaided Awareness
• Current Usage
38
•
•
•
•
Brand Image Scores Across
Personality Dimension
Product Dimensions
Benefit Dimensions
similarly there are different advertising strategies for
•
•
•
•
Consumer durables
Services
Corporate advertising
Rural inputs advertising
Notes
LESSON 14
STRETCH YOUR BRAND – BUT WATCH
ITS LIMITS
Why does Coca Cola lend its name to a range of clothes? Why
does the name of the world’s most famous cigarette also adorn
sports gar-ments? Why does Dettol-the household name for
antiseptic liquids- become a bath soap as well? Why does North
Star, the easy-living shoe, also become transformed into jeans
and jackets? And whoever would have thought of Cadbury
mashed potatoes?
To those of us who have been brought up on a diet of the
‘distinct brand identity’, on the philosophy of ‘one product,
one brand name’, of a brand being a ‘single, indivisible, unique
entity’ -to us this habit of slapping on the same brand name to
a host of other products is somewhat disturbing. And yet this
trend is accelerating.
Earlier pattern
Earlier, we were familiar-and comfortable-with a corporate name
doing duty for several brands: Bajaj scooters, Bajaj mixies and
Bajaj water heaters, for example. We were also familiar with the
same brand name being used for closely related productsColgate toothpaste and toothbrushes.
But what is happening today seems to upset all our earlier
notions of the sanctity and uniqueness of a brand name. There
were some companies which resolutely stuck to the philosophy
of ‘one product, one brand name’. Although Swastik’s Det was
both a detergent powder and a detergent bar, Hindustan Lever
did not brand its detergent bar as Surf but called it Rin. And
when the company launched another cheaper bar they called it
Wheel, not Rin Popular or Rin Janata! But surprisingly, the
company’s low-cost detergent powder is also branded as Wheel.
What are the forces behind this fundamental change in our
tradi-tional philosophy of branding? We discussed this
phenomenon briefly when we considered the ‘Who am I?’
aspect of a brand. But what is the driving force behind this
phenomenon?
Brand equity:
So much consumer loyalty and goodwill surrounds a successful
brand name that it is seen as the direct source of much of the
owner- company’s profit.
A spokesman of the Philip ;..Morris Company-which owns the
Marlboro brand- was reported as saying, “I would sell my
fIXed assets at $ 30 miliion but I wouldn’t sell the Marlboro
name for $ 300 million” This beliefthat the brand name has a
direct financial worth, no less than investment in fIXed assets,
has given rise-to the notion of brand equity: the brand name
functions like an asset which has a direct impact on the bottom
line. The clearest manifestation is the high value paid for brand
names during buy-outs and mergers.
Probably one of the earliest references to the concept of brand
equity is to be found in a discussion of ‘Brand Extensions’ by
Gamble. He refers to “brands with well-established equities”
being acquired.1 In a more recent context, Dr Tauber writes
(1988):
The brand name suddenly has emerged as the most coveted
corporate asset of all. Brands po longer are merely products
competing for market share; they’re annuities...
He gives a more precise definition of brand equity. It is not to be
confused with brand personality or image. It is:
The incremental value of a business above the value of its
physical assets due to the market position achieved by its brand
and the extension potential of the brand.
Drawing upon this concept of brand equity, marketers have
ex-tended the names of successful brands to several new
products in several categories. Tauber says that in the USA
almost half of all new products are brand extensions. A new
term has arisen: Super brand-ing-the use of the same name for
several brands in many categories and marketed under that
brand name in many countries.
From promotion to licensing
In the past, we have seen the extension of brand names, usually
to related products, as a means of creating wider exposure to
the brand name. The Sun Lager name was printed on beer
glasses, for instance, and given away by the company. There were
Bournvita and Nescafe mugs. Soon, however, the manufacturer
of such items found that he could use a popular brand name to
market his product.
Thus was born the business of licensing which has become a
major activity in developed markets like the USA. As an
example, the New York Simplicity Pattern Company’s name
“commands such power in the home sewing and crafts field
that through licensing, the company can bring consumers
Simplicity brand sewing machines, scissors, kraft kits and about
1,200 other related products”.5
In licensing a brand name for use on products made by others,
the owner of the brand name takes care to ensure a level of
quality, consistent with the image of his brand. He also ensures
a degree of compatibility with the licensed product which will
carry his brand name. The Marlboro name may be used for
sports clothing but one can hardly imagine its use for lipstick.
In this form of brand extension, the licensee relieves the owner
of the brand name-the licensor-from many headaches by taking
on the functions of making, selling and advertising the
product. In return,
the licensor rents out his trade marks and logos and receives
royalties.Although this form of licensing is big business in the
West, it is not yet very visible in India. What we have at this
time is the use of famous characters like Mickey Mouse, against
payment of a license fee, as a promotional aid to sell products
like toys or ice cream. There is considerable potential for the
licensing business in India. Dior and versace are the international
39
BRAND POSITIONING
Rules and risks of brand extension:
UNIT 3
BRAND EQUITY AND FRANCHISING OBJECTIVES
BRAND POSITIONING
designers and are good example of the strategy of licensing.
Franchising
A somewhat close cousin of licensing is the system of franchising which is catching on in India. The owner of the brand name
(which may refer to a product or a service) awards a franchise to
another party which runs the business-either an outlet, a
producer or service outfit-and the franchisee pays a fee or royalty
to the franchiser. Thus, Tata’s Titan are appointing franchised
outlets for sales and service of their watches. Soft drinks are
generally franchised. The owner of the brand name appoints
bottlers, supplies them with the concentrate and backs them
with national advertising for the brand. Mothercare India which
operates a chain of stores for children’s requirements, is setting
up franchised outlets under the name of Little Kingdom. This
is somewhat similar to exclusive dealer outlets (not permitted
by the MRTP Act) which operate under the same brand name
and only stock products bearing one brand name or family of
brand names. A successful marketer of a brand of potato chips
in Calcutta is looking for franchisees in other cities.
(i)What Is franchising?
You are an executive who is being displaced or who is dissatisfied with the way you are being treated by your company.
Recently you have been thinking about putting your resume on
the street, but more often than not you have found yourself
thinking about going into business for yourself.
Whenever you think about going into business for yourself,
you think about the horror stories and statistics you read in
USA Today and the Wall Street Journal about the failure rate of
independent businesses. Those statistics dampen your desire to
own your own business.
Yet every week in those same newspapers you see ads by
companies offering franchise opportunities. If you want to be
self employed and are intrigued by the idea of operating a
franchise and want to find out more about selecting the right
one for you, read on.
(ii)What Is franchising?
Franchising is one of three business strategies a company may
use in capturing market share. The others are company owned
units or a combination of company owned and franchised
units.Franchising is a business strategy for getting and keeping
customers. It is a marketing system for creating an image in the
minds of current and future customers about how the
company’s products and services can help them. It is a method
for distributing products and services that satisfy customer
needs.
Franchising is a network of interdependent business relationships that allows a number of people to share:
• A brand identification
• A successful method of doing business
• A proven marketing and distribution system
In short, franchising is a strategic alliance between groups of
people who have specific relationships and responsibilities with
a common goal to dominate markets, i.e., to get and keep more
customers than their competitors.
There are many misconceptions about franchising, but probably
the most widely held is that you as a franchisee are “buying a
40
franchise.” In reality you are investing your assets in a system to
utilize the brand name, operating system and ongoing support.
You and everyone in the system are licensed to use the brand
name and operating system.
The business relationship is a joint commitment by all franchisees to get and keep customers. Legally you are bound to get
and keep them using the prescribed marketing and operating
systems of the franchiser.
To be successful in franchising you must understand the
business and legal ramifications of your relationship with the
franchiser and all the franchisees. Your focus must be on
working with other franchisees and company managers to
market the brand, and fully use the operating system to get and
keep customers.
Throughout this article we will discuss in detail some of the
benefits of conducting business as part of a larger group.
Other franchisees and company operated units are not your
competition. The opposite is true. They and you share the task
of establishing the brand as the dominant brand in all markets
entered and reinforcing the customers’ familiarity with and trust
in the brand. So in this respect you are working as a team with
others in the system. Other franchisees share with you the
responsibility for quality, consistency, convenience, and other
factors that define your franchise and insures repeat business for
everyone. Increasing the value of the brand name is a shared
responsibility of the franchiser and franchisee.
An “ownership mentality” destroys the reason franchised and
company-operated units are successful. Think about it. If you
think you “bought” a franchise, you become an “owner” and
begin to think and act like an owner. You will want to change
the system because of your needs, you will wonder what you
are paying the royalty for, and you will begin thinking of other
franchisees as your competitors. For these and many other
reasons you do not want to think of yourself as an “independent owner.”
As a franchisee you own the assets of your company, which you
have chosen to invest in someone else’s brand and operating
system and ongoing support. You own the assets of your
company, but you are licensed to operate someone else’s
business system.
Finally, your desire to become a franchisee must be grounded in
your belief that you can be more successful using someone
else’s brand and operating according to their systems and
methods, than you could if you opened up your own independent business and competed against them. You want to look
for a franchiser who is building a system of interdependent
franchisees who are committed to getting and keeping customers, to growing faster than the market, to growing faster than
the competitors, and to do all of that with high margins. When
you discover a franchiser who understands this relationship, you
have a franchiser worth your consideration.
The strength of franchising:
Franchising is the most popular system for growing a business
in the United States today. According to every government
survey, franchising has experienced explosive growth since the
mid-70s and is expected to be the leading method of doing
business in the new century.
Investing in a Franchise:
In reality you are taking your assets, which you own, and
investing them in someone elses’ brand and operating system.
You will always own your assets. You will always own your
corporation. But you will “do business as” (dba) a licensee of
the franchiser.
Before you select a franchise. . .
Step1:Evaluate yourself:
Your job is to make an informed business decision about
whether a franchiser’s business opportunity meets your needs
and whether you can provide what the franchiser wants and
needs in a franchisee.
You need to ask yourself basic questions:
What do you want from life at this time? What are your wants,
needs, and desires? What are your goals, objectives, and
dreams? What are you looking for in a business? Have you
decided to leave what you are now doing–not just the job, but
the profession?
Have you made a decision to become a part of another
organization? Remember that in franchising you joined
someone else’s business. You are going to be using their
marketing system to generate customers and their operating
system to satisfy them.
Do you have the kind of personality that can accept running the
business according to someone else’s plan without feeling that
it compromises your individuality? Do you have an interest in
doing this kind of work for the length of the agreement? Have
you ever worked for one company for five or ten years? Do you
have related skills, knowledge, abilities, and work-related
experiences similar to the ones required for running the
franchise you are considering? Do you have the financial
resources to open and operate the business successfully? Can
the business support your lifestyle needs? Which of the
franchises you are reviewing meets your financial needs short
and long term?
Step2:Evaluate the franchise opportunity:
Evaluate the legal documents from a business perspective.
Determine whether the franchiser has territory policies that
might make franchisees less competitive in a highly competitive
environment. Many prospective franchisees erroneously believe
that having a large territory is best for them. It could, in fact, be
the worst thing for them. For example, if you have too few
franchisees in a market and competitors have more units than
you have, it could leave you at a disadvantage in terms of
dominating the market for your product or service in your area.
Look for a franchiser who can communicate a strategy not just
for market presence but for dominating markets; look for a
franchiser interested in establishing a competitive edge and
increasing market share. If a franchiser cannot talk about these
issues, it is entirely possible the franchiser is using franchising as
a way to generate franchise fees and royalty revenue rather than
to establish a competitive position in the marketplace.
Evaluate the marketing/advertising fee. Many franchisers and
prospective franchisees erroneously believe that a low marketing
fee is a good thing. In fact, the marketing fee should be related
to the amount of money each franchisee needs to contribute to
support an advertising campaign that will generate enough new
and repeat business for each of them. A 1% advertising fee may
look good now, but when you need 5% from everyone to be
competitive, it might not be possible to convince all franchisees
to participate.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the Franchise Advisory Council.
Does the franchiser incorporate the franchisees’ input in the
decisions that affect the future direction of the system? Does
the franchiser involve franchisees’ input in decisions?
Be sure you can answer the question “How will I make money
in this business?” There should be a very simple answer to this
question. It will not violate earnings claims restrictions for the
franchiser to answer it because you are not asking “How much
money will I make?” You simply want to know how money is
made in the business. Spend as much time as possible speaking
to existing franchisees. Ask them if they would do it again.
How long did it take them to recoup their investment? How
much money are they making? Does the operating system
work? Are they provided with good marketing programs? Do
the franchisees get along well with each other and with the
franchiser? What are the major problems with the business? Do
they use all of the operating system? Is the franchiser’s ongoing
support adequate and helpful? The answers to these questions
will help you make your decision.
Step 3: Evaluate the franchiser’s business plan:
The franchiser should have a business plan for the system that
41
BRAND POSITIONING
In the United States, there are over 2,500 franchise systems.
These systems have in excess of 534,000 franchise units, which
represent 3.2% of the total businesses. This 3.2% of all
businesses controls over 35% of all retail and service revenue in
the U.S. economy.
Franchising’s advantages over going into business for yourself
include; opening quicker, experiencing success sooner, developing a customer base faster, having less risk and being more
profitable.
Your success as a franchisee is based on the proven success of
the franchiser to operate company units and upon the success
of existing franchisees. [It should be able to show that the
business can be successful in various markets and in different
conditions.
A company franchises because it wants to quickly and in great
numbers replicate its successful company operations without
significantly increasing its debt. Because it has been successful at
teaching its own employees to operate the business, the
company believes it can repeat the same success by teaching
others to do it.
In franchising, the operating system becomes identified with
the brand or trade name that you license as a franchisee. Each
franchise system uses precise methods to service and satisfy the
customer. By documenting these practices, the franchiser
institutionalizes the buying experience. Because customers don’t
like surprises this consistency in operations, unit to unit, builds
customer loyalty to the brand.
Franchising is successful because we Americans are people of
habit and are brand-driven when we purchase goods and
services. We trust brands that we see everywhere, every day. We
tend to be loyal to a product or service delivered to us the same
way all the time.
BRAND POSITIONING
covers at least the length of the agreement you are being asked
to commit to. Ask for the plan for the market where you are
going to locate the operation. Ask for their analysis of the
competition. Ask how many units are being planned for your
area and why that many. Why not more, why not less? Ask how
much is going to be spent on marketing in your area.
Ask to look at the operations manuals or at least to see an
outline of them. This is important because the operations
manuals are your guideline to a successful operation. You need
to feel comfortable that they are complete and clear and meet
your abilities, needs, and goals.
Ask to receive a full explanation of the initial and subsequent
training programs. Ask how people are trained. Is it classroom
or hands-on practice? Are there case studies and discussions or
is it straight lecture?
Ask for a full explanation of the pre-opening assistance offered
by the franchisor. Understand any help franchisors give for site
selection and lease negotiation. Be clear about what ongoing
support the franchisor provides to the franchisees.
In Summary…
• Franchising is a business strategy centered around a strategic
•
alliance between groups of people who share specific
relationships and responsibilities in addition to being
licensed to use a franchisor’s brand name and proprietary way
of doing business.
Other franchisees are not your competitors; they work in
tandem with you to establish and reinforce brand-name
dominance in your area.
• Keep in mind that you own the assets of your company but
are licensed to operate someone else’s business.
• Franchising is successful because we Americans are people of
habit and are brand-driven.
You are an executive who is being displaced or who is dissatisfied with the way you are being treated by your company.
Recently you have been thinking about putting your resume on
the street, but more often than not you have found yourself
thinking about going into business for yourself.
Whenever you think about going into business for yourself,
you think about the horror stories and statistics you read in
USA Today and the Wall Street Journal about the failure rate of
independent businesses. Those statistics dampen your desire to
own your own business.
Yet every week in those same newspapers you see ads by
companies offering franchise opportunities. If you want to be
self employed and are intrigued by the idea of operating a
franchise and want to find out more about selecting the right
one for you, read on.
(ii)What Is franchising?
Franchising is one of three business strategies a company may
use in capturing market share. The others are company owned
units or a combination of company owned and franchised
units.
Franchising is a business strategy for getting and keeping
customers. It is a marketing system for creating an image in the
minds of current and future customers about how the
42
company’s products and services can help them. It is a method
for distributing products and services that satisfy customer
needs.Franchising is a network of interdependent business
relationships that allows a number of people to share:
• A brand identification
• A successful method of doing business
• A proven marketing and distribution system
In short, franchising is a strategic alliance between groups of
people who have specific relationships and responsibilities with
a common goal to dominate markets, i.e., to get and keep more
customers than their competitors.
There are many misconceptions about franchising, but probably
the most widely held is that you as a franchisee are “buying a
franchise.” In reality you are investing your assets in a system to
utilize the brand name, operating system and ongoing support.
You and everyone in the system are licensed to use the brand
name and operating system.
The business relationship is a joint commitment by all franchisees to get and keep customers. Legally you are bound to get
and keep them using the prescribed marketing and operating
systems of the franchiser.
To be successful in franchising you must understand the
business and legal ramifications of your relationship with the
franchiser and all the franchisees. Your focus must be on
working with other franchisees and company managers to
market the brand, and fully use the operating system to get and
keep customers.
Throughout this article we will discuss in detail some of the
benefits of conducting business as part of a larger group.
Other franchisees and company operated units are not your
competition. The opposite is true. They and you share the task
of establishing the brand as the dominant brand in all markets
entered and reinforcing the customers’ familiarity with and trust
in the brand. So in this respect you are working as a team with
others in the system. Other franchisees share with you the
responsibility for quality, consistency, convenience, and other
factors that define your franchise and insures repeat business for
everyone. Increasing the value of the brand name is a shared
responsibility of the franchiser and franchisee.
An “ownership mentality” destroys the reason franchised and
company-operated units are successful. Think about it. If you
think you “bought” a franchise, you become an “owner” and
begin to think and act like an owner. You will want to change
the system because of your needs, you will wonder what you
are paying the royalty for, and you will begin thinking of other
franchisees as your competitors. For these and many other
reasons you do not want to think of yourself as an “independent owner.”
As a franchisee you own the assets of your company, which you
have chosen to invest in someone else’s brand and operating
system and ongoing support. You own the assets of your
company, but you are licensed to operate someone else’s
business system.
Finally, your desire to become a franchisee must be grounded in
your belief that you can be more successful using someone
else’s brand and operating according to their systems and
methods, than you could if you opened up your own indepen-
Investing in a Franchise:
In reality you are taking your assets, which you own, and
investing them in someone elses’ brand and operating system.
You will always own your assets. You will always own your
corporation. But you will “do business as” (dba) a licensee of
the franchiser.
Before you select a franchise. . .
Step1:Evaluate yourself:
Your job is to make an informed business decision about
whether a franchiser’s business opportunity meets your needs
and whether you can provide what the franchiser wants and
needs in a franchisee.
You need to ask yourself basic questions:
What do you want from life at this time? What are your wants,
needs, and desires? What are your goals, objectives, and
dreams? What are you looking for in a business? Have you
decided to leave what you are now doing–not just the job, but
the profession?
Have you made a decision to become a part of another
organization? Remember that in franchising you joined
someone else’s business. You are going to be using their
marketing system to generate customers and their operating
system to satisfy them.
Do you have the kind of personality that can accept running the
business according to someone else’s plan without feeling that
it compromises your individuality? Do you have an interest in
doing this kind of work for the length of the agreement? Have
you ever worked for one company for five or ten years? Do you
have related skills, knowledge, abilities, and work-related
experiences similar to the ones required for running the
franchise you are considering? Do you have the financial
resources to open and operate the business successfully? Can
the business support your lifestyle needs? Which of the
franchises you are reviewing meets your financial needs short
and long term?
Step2:Evaluate the franchise opportunity:
Evaluate the legal documents from a business perspective.
Determine whether the franchiser has territory policies that
might make franchisees less competitive in a highly competitive
environment. Many prospective franchisees erroneously believe
that having a large territory is best for them. It could, in fact, be
the worst thing for them. For example, if you have too few
franchisees in a market and competitors have more units than
you have, it could leave you at a disadvantage in terms of
dominating the market for your product or service in your area.
Look for a franchiser who can communicate a strategy not just
for market presence but for dominating markets; look for a
franchiser interested in establishing a competitive edge and
increasing market share. If a franchiser cannot talk about these
issues, it is entirely possible the franchiser is using franchising as
a way to generate franchise fees and royalty revenue rather than
to establish a competitive position in the marketplace.
Evaluate the marketing/advertising fee. Many franchisers and
prospective franchisees erroneously believe that a low marketing
fee is a good thing. In fact, the marketing fee should be related
to the amount of money each franchisee needs to contribute to
support an advertising campaign that will generate enough new
and repeat business for each of them. A 1% advertising fee may
look good now, but when you need 5% from everyone to be
competitive, it might not be possible to convince all franchisees
to participate.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the Franchise Advisory Council.
Does the franchiser incorporate the franchisees’ input in the
decisions that affect the future direction of the system? Does
the franchiser involve franchisees’ input in decisions?
Be sure you can answer the question “How will I make money
in this business?” There should be a very simple answer to this
question. It will not violate earnings claims restrictions for the
franchiser to answer it because you are not asking “How much
money will I make?” You simply want to know how money is
43
BRAND POSITIONING
dent business and competed against them. You want to look
for a franchiser who is building a system of interdependent
franchisees who are committed to getting and keeping customers, to growing faster than the market, to growing faster than
the competitors, and to do all of that with high margins. When
you discover a franchiser who understands this relationship, you
have a franchiser worth your consideration.
The strength of franchising:
Franchising is the most popular system for growing a business
in the United States today. According to every government
survey, franchising has experienced explosive growth since the
mid-70s and is expected to be the leading method of doing
business in the new century.
In the United States, there are over 2,500 franchise systems.
These systems have in excess of 534,000 franchise units, which
represent 3.2% of the total businesses. This 3.2% of all
businesses controls over 35% of all retail and service revenue in
the U.S. economy.
Franchising’s advantages over going into business for yourself
include; opening quicker, experiencing success sooner, developing a customer base faster, having less risk and being more
profitable.
Your success as a franchisee is based on the proven success of
the franchiser to operate company units and upon the success
of existing franchisees. [It should be able to show that the
business can be successful in various markets and in different
conditions.
A company franchises because it wants to quickly and in great
numbers replicate its successful company operations without
significantly increasing its debt. Because it has been successful at
teaching its own employees to operate the business, the
company believes it can repeat the same success by teaching
others to do it.
In franchising, the operating system becomes identified with
the brand or trade name that you license as a franchisee. Each
franchise system uses precise methods to service and satisfy the
customer. By documenting these practices, the franchiser
institutionalizes the buying experience. Because customers don’t
like surprises this consistency in operations, unit to unit, builds
customer loyalty to the brand.
Franchising is successful because we Americans are people of
habit and are brand-driven when we purchase goods and
services. We trust brands that we see everywhere, every day. We
tend to be loyal to a product or service delivered to us the same
way all the time.
BRAND POSITIONING
made in the business. Spend as much time as possible speaking
to existing franchisees. Ask them if they would do it again.
How long did it take them to recoup their investment? How
much money are they making? Does the operating system
work? Are they provided with good marketing programs? Do
the franchisees get along well with each other and with the
franchiser? What are the major problems with the business? Do
they use all of the operating system? Is the franchiser’s ongoing
support adequate and helpful? The answers to these questions
will help you make your decision.
Step 3: Evaluate the franchiser’s business plan:
The franchiser should have a business plan for the system that
covers at least the length of the agreement you are being asked
to commit to. Ask for the plan for the market where you are
going to locate the operation. Ask for their analysis of the
competition. Ask how many units are being planned for your
area and why that many. Why not more, why not less? Ask how
much is going to be spent on marketing in your area.
Ask to look at the operations manuals or at least to see an
outline of them. This is important because the operations
manuals are your guideline to a successful operation. You need
to feel comfortable that they are complete and clear and meet
your abilities, needs, and goals.
Ask to receive a full explanation of the initial and subsequent
training programs. Ask how people are trained. Is it classroom
or hands-on practice? Are there case studies and discussions or
is it straight lecture?
Ask for a full explanation of the pre-opening assistance offered
by the franchisor. Understand any help franchisors give for site
selection and lease negotiation. Be clear about what ongoing
support the franchisor provides to the franchisees.
In Summary…
• Franchising is a business strategy centered around a strategic
alliance between groups of people who share specific
relationships and responsibilities in addition to being
licensed to use a franchisor’s brand name and proprietary way
of doing business.
• Other franchisees are not your competitors; they work in
tandem with you to establish and reinforce brand-name
dominance in your area.
• Keep in mind that you own the assets of your company but
are licensed to operate someone else’s business.
• Franchising is successful because we Americans are people of
habit and are brand-driven.
44
Notes
A successful brand is like a powerhouse containing enough
energy to illuminate distant territories. Such a brand name holds
enormous appeal for consumers. It has stood the test of time
and competition. This is the driving force behind brand
extensions-this huge accumula-tion of consumer-pulling power
which can be harnessed beyond the brand’s traditional market
boundaries.
This is what explains the extension from Ivory soap to Ivory
sham-poo, from Dettol antiseptic to Dettol soap, from Pond’s
Dreamflower talc to Pond’s Dreamflower soap, from North Star
shoes to North Star apparel.
The other driving force is the present-day high cost of launching an altogether new brand. With increasingly competitive
markets and escalating media costs, it makes sound financial
and marketing sense to spin out the inner force of a respected
brand for new incarnations.
Paradoxically, we find examples of such new incarnations with
brands that are in the declining phase of their life cycle as well as
those in the prime of life.In sickness and in health
The story of Gold Flake is a good illustration of taking over a
strong brand name from a category which is static or declining
like plain cigarettes-to a market all set for growth like king-sized
filters.Charminar, once the largest-selling cigarette brand in
India, belongs unfortunately to a declining category: dark,
strong tobacco in a plain (non-filter) cigarette. And yet the name
holds magic. It cannot be allowed to go to waste. Hence the
spawning of numerous off shoots- Charms, Charminar Gold,
Charminar Virginia Filter .
Forhan’s Regular, in spite of its undoubted goodness for the
gums, is in decline because it simply cannot satisfy the younger
tooth-paste-user of today who demands taste and foam. Hence
its off shoot -Foaming Forhan’s with fluoride. The brand
name Forhan’s is too valuable to be allowed to wither away.
Pond’s Dreamflower talc, on the other hand, is in the prime of
life. The strength of that name has been extended to a premium toilet soap. Keo Karpin is a buoyant and growing light
hair oil. The brand name has been extended to launch a. skin.
ointment. And the most vigorous.
of the new brand names in India-Nirma has been extended to
launch another successful product, Nirma detergent bar. A
Nirma toilet soap is in test markets (1989) and we hear of a
Nirma toothpaste soon to be with us.
Beware of the trap
Trout and Ries are dead against such extensions-they call it the
lineextension trap. They give two arguments.First, they say, a
highly successful brand almost owns the category. The sign of its
success is that consumers begin to think of the brand name as
generic. “This is the essence of positioning. To make your
brand name stand for the generic. So the prospect freely uses the
brand name for the generic.” Like “Hand me a Bayer”, meaning
an aspirin tablet. This advantage, they think, is lost if the brand
name is extended to other categories, say Bayer decongestants.
Second, when a brand has etched a clear position in the
prospect’s mind, extension of the brand name to some other
product dilutes that position. Like extending the Bayer name to
non-aspirin tablets.
We do not agree with the first argument but we do, conditionally, agree with the second.
Nirma, you might argue, means detergent powder, so how can
it also be a detergent bar? The consumer has no such problem.
He has taken happily to both. Trout and Ries describe the
prospect’s way of looking at products as the ‘outside-in’ view.
Well, here is the ‘outside-in’ view of the prospect in relation to
Nirma: 60% market share for the powder; as for the bar, in the
second year after launch, Nirma detergent bar gained 33.4%
market share.
A brand extension should be ‘No-go’, however, if it does
indeed conflict with or dilute the sharply focused position of
the mother brand in the prospect’s mind. Does Dettol soap for
a 100% bath dilute or conflict with the clear, sharp position of
the original, viz. Dettol antiseptic liquid? We do not think so
and neither does the consumer. Would a Dettol deodorant stick
or spray conflict with that original position-the foundation of
Dettol’s success? Perhaps not. Would a Dettol prickly heat
powder hurt that position? Possibly not. But a Dettol perfume
probably would.
It is with some astonishment that we learn of the famous
Carnation brand of breakfast and other (human) foods being
extended to a range of pet foods. Not many humans may relish
the idea of dog and master consuming the same brand.
Suprisingly, “Chanel has introduced ranges of male fragrances
under what was exclusively a feminine brand without the
slightest dilution of the existing brand”. Sex equality with a
vengeance!
Apart from obvious dangers in such brand extension, there is
also the high risk that the failure of a brand extension would
injure the reputation of the original. Pre-testing consumer
acceptance becomes even more critical with a brand extension
because several reputations are at stake.
Line Extension v. Brand Extension
But before we take up this issue of fit or compatibility for a
brand extension, let us clear up a semantic problem. Line
extension and brand extension are often used interchangeably. This
would not be right. Line extensions should refer only to
additions to an existing product line of a company in a given
category-to ‘fill out’ the line. Thus, Marvel was an addition to
the Godrej toilet soap line which already included Cinthol and
Fresca. Wheel was a line extension to Hindustan Lever’s line of
detergent bars which already had Rin.
Use of the same brand name for a line extension can be tricky.
Can you imagine the present Cinthol, a Cinthol Shikakai soap
and a Cinthol with its own beauty cream-all fighting for a place
45
BRAND POSITIONING
LESSON 15
BRAND EXTENSION
BRAND POSITIONING
in the consumer’s mind? The one situation where it might
work (we say might) is in the form of extra strength-like Clinic
shampoo and Clinic Plus; or Vicks VapoRub and Vicks
VapoRub Plus. But there too, the dangers of cannibalization are
high.By contrast, brand extension refers to using an existing
brand name to enter another product market (category)
altogether. We saw several examples earlier, like Dettol antiseptic
liquid and Dettol soap.When we do undertake a brand extension we must give special attention to three critical criteria. You
will note that all three are closely interrelated.
Criteria for brand extension
(i) The “Fit”
First, the category chosen for the brand extension must be seen
as compatible with the nature of the parent brand and the
expertise it represents. There must be a fit. Management
judgement acts as the first screen. Will Nirma be acceptable as a
scourer, a dish-washing liquid, a wax polish, a toilet cleaner?
Will it be equally acceptable as cooking oil, as branded spice, as
sauce, ketchup and noodles? What do consumers think?
Gamble, to whom we referred earlier, gives examples of
consumer research in the sixties to test the fit between the Pet
Milk Company and the extensions being considered under the
Pet name. Thus, “baby foods were perceived as being close to
the Pet image...Pickles were regarded as distant and inconsistent”. In the context of brand exten-sion, says Gamble, “the
concept of constellations of related products comes into the
picture”.
More recently, Professors Aaker and Keller made a study to find
out how far a brand name could be stretched. They checked
consumer perceptions to aid management judgement. What
they did was to slap on some well-known brand names on a
variety of different products and check consumer response.
These were some of their’ findings:’
McDonald’s reputation for fast, efficient service did not carry
over to photo-processing services.
Heinken wine won’t work. People would expect it to taste like
beer.Heinken popcorn was not seen as needing Heinken’s
know-how.C Merle Crawford describes how a consumer
research technique called brand elasticity analysis can measure the
elasticity of a brand- its ability to stretch to other product
categories and still carry its consumer franchise. Crawford also
reports a hypothetical elasticity profile for the well-known
Minute Maid brand of orange juice. Thus, it would be most
elastic, ie. there would be a good fit of the Minute Maid brand
name with jellies, soups, even dinner rolls; but it was least
elastic with packaged meats, ice cream and peanut butter. Cakes
were a borderline case.”
A company in India, very successful in beverages, undertook a
study to measure how well consumers would accept the
corporate name (which also served as the umbrella brand name
for their beverages), when applied to a range of other products
being considered for diversification. The findings were revealing.
The sample was drawn from housewives in all the four metros
in the Rs 1,500+ household income group, in the age-group of
25 to 45, and at least matriculates. A score of 3 indicated
‘perfectly natural’, i.e. a good fit between the corporate name
and the new product category; 2 indicated ‘not surprising’; a
46
score of 1 meant ‘surprising’. These were some of the scores:
Another beverage
2.9
Biscuits
2.2
Milk
2.0
Bread
1.9
Soft drink
1.9
Fruit juice
19
Butter
1.9
Noodles
1.8
Chutney
1.6
Detergent
1.4
Pressure cooker
1.2
Bulbs
1.2
The company further analyzed these responses and divided
theminto two groups:
(a) product categories for which 25% or more consumers said
‘per-fectly natural’ and less than 25% said ‘surprising’, and
(b) categories for which over 50% said ‘surprising’ and less than
10% said ‘perfectly natural’. This helped to distinguish more
clearly the reasonably good fit categories (a), from those that
were not (b). The two groups were:
(a)Another beverage, biscuits,fruit juice, bread, milk
(b)Bulb, pressure cooker, typewriter,detergent, meat/fish,
noodles, gulabjamun mix, chutney
Soft drink had a mixed reception being classified under (a) in
Bombay and Madras, and under (b) in Calcutta.
You can see that it is safer not to make snap judgements, except
in the most obvious cases and that executive judgement should
be checked with consumer perceptions.
(ii) The value perception
The second criterion for successful brand extension is to ensure
that there is consistency in the value perception of the brand in
the new category as compared to its parent brand.
We have to ask ourselves, what does the brand name represent?
What is its essential value in the eyes of the consumer? ITC
believes that the name Gold Flake represents ‘exclusiveness’ and
‘consistent high quality’. These are the essential ‘Gold Flake
values’. Although Gold Flake Filter Kings and Gold Flake plain
are categories apart, they are both linked by these common
values. Thus, the brand exten-sion does not hurt the essential
position of either brand.
Dettol represents trusted, hygienic household and personal care.
That is the essence of the brand name, its perceived value. To
slap it on a beauty cream would be entirely out of character.
That is not the distinguishing value of the brand name. That is
not the ‘Dettol position’ .
Bic stands for low cost, utility and disposability. One finds the
brand name extending from disposable ball point pens to
disposable lighters and razors. Can you imagine the Bic brand
name on a handsome, presentation electric shaver?
Nirma represents above all the value-for-money position: good
quality at a low price. This character, or value, should permeate
all its incarnations which, indeed, has happened so far. But,
please, not a Nirma Deluxe positioned against Lux International.
In this sense, Trout and Ries are right when they talk of the
extension ‘trap’. It is, indeed, a trap if the extension is out of
(iii) The Edge
The third criterion for a successful brand extension, closely allied
to value perception, is the competitive edge. Marketers have
found to their cost that this is not automatic. A great brand
name in one category is no automatic assurance that it can offer
a competitive and persuasive difference over established brands
in the new category. Even if the value perception is favourable,
consumers will expect to derive some advantage, some new
benefit before they switch. The extended brand needs to
measure itself against each strong competitor which it will face.
Satisfying this third criterion means that the extended brand
must have some inherent quality perception which gives it an
edge in the new category. This might be the case if Dettol were
to launch a shaving cream, for instance, or Complan a nourishing, tasty biscuit for the school kid’s lunch box. Shaving does
lead to nicks and cuts. Dettol antiseptic shaving cream would
approach the consumer with a built-in edge. The Complanaware mother, asked to choose between estab-lished biscuit
brands and the new Complan biscuit, would probably perceive
Complan to have an edge in terms of greater nourishment. It
was lack of such an edge which caused Glaxo talcum powder for
babies to fumble.
Better for Babies?
Logically, what could be a better fit than for Glaxo—trusted by
mothers for baby foods-to offer those mothers a talcum
powder for babies?
This was the reasoning that prompted Glaxo to launch a talcum
powder positioned against the overwhelming market leader,
Johnson’s Baby Powder. The value perception, too, seemed just
right: Glaxo understands what is good for babies and that goes
for babies’ tender skins as well. Thus was launched Glaxo
Tender Talc. A good brand name. A good pack. A good
product.
Good, but not better in any way than Johnson’s-also a trusted
name when it comes to the baby’s outside. It was judged that
the edge would come from the Glaxo name itself. But this
name conveyed no inherent advantage to the mother over the
baby powder which she had used for years. The brand extension didn’t work.
Pond’s, a great name in talcum powders, has broken out in a
rash of extensions including baby soap and powder. Do you
think they will have better luck than Glaxo. How would you rate
this extension into baby care products in terms of fit, value
perception and edge?
Johnson & Johnson are masters of brand extension when it
comes to baby care products. Their corporate brand name has
supported each of their extensions, from baby powder to baby
soap, shampoo, oil, lotion and cream. The theme in their
advertising is:
For a hundred years now, we at Johnson & Johnson have been
caring for baby-skin... That is why you cannot entrust the care
of his skin to just anyone.
It will require more than a facile brand extension to dislodge
Johnson’s.
Example:
North star extension
We will conclude this chapter with one of the best tailored
examples of brand extension in India-from North Star shoes
to North Star apparel. * Launched in 1978, Bata’s North Star
brand of footwear was selling one million pairs a year by the
early eighties. It had become the symbol of the easy-going,
free.-spirited way of life. Targeted at young, or at least youngminded, modern consumers receptive to trends from the West,
North Star footwear advertising aimed to create the response:
North Star is classy, trendy, casual, vibrant and young. It is now
really me.Taking stock of international fashion trends and the
unique, unchal-lenged position occupied by North Star shoes,
casual wear favoured by the young seemed a most natural brand
extension. The fit was apparent.
The range of apparel was designed with emphasis on denim
-universal symbol of the young and free spirited. Murjani-one
of the best known international names in contemporary
fashion-was chosen as collaborator for the designs. In the USA,
MurJani is almost synonymous with Gloria Vanderbilt jeanswith the promise of
fashion and fit. The North Star range of apparel has taken
advantage of Murjani’s careful attention to design, fit, colour
and fabric. To mix metaphors a little, one might say that for this
brand extension Murjani added the cutting edge. The North
Star apparel range has been positioned as:
Contemporary, distinctive, youthful, often daring, always
original.It has been divided into two categories: the core line
consisting of classic designs in jeans and jackets which would
47
BRAND POSITIONING
line with the basic position which the parent brand occupies in
the consumer’s mind. Sometimes, we can be taken by surprise
by consumers’ judge-ments. Raymond’s is the brand name for
an expensive, highly regarded, prestigious suiting fabric. What
could be more logical than to extend this brand name to readyto-wear trousers? Good ‘inside-out’ thinking, as Trout and Ries
would say. Ra:ymond’s trousers, branded as Raymond’s Double
Barrels, promised ‘no hassles with tailors’ and ‘great fit’-a highly
desirable benefit in readymades. Consumer response was
lukewarm.When Lintas took over the account, they found that
while con-sumers were perfectly happy with Indian-made
fabrics-and Raymond’s occupied a lofty place-they associated
good fit with foreign brands like Levi’s or Wrangler. What
Lintas contributed was a re-branding exercise. He-launch
Raymond’s ready-to-wear trousers with a brand name that
stood for sophistication, class and a hint of the foreign
expertise that went with good readymades. The brand name
chosen was Park Avenue. Raymond’s perceived value was ‘great
fabric’, not ‘great fit’. So, the Raymond brand extension didn’t
work. A new brand name that helped to credibly convey the
value of ‘great fit’ -Park A venue-did work. “From a fledgling
loss-making division in 1983, sales moved up to over Rs 10
crore in 1986 and further doubled by 1988”.
The newly branded Park Avenue-initially trousers, shirts and
suits-has extended itself to a range of Park Avenue men’s
toiletries: shaving cream, after-shave, talcum powder and the
like.A successful brand extension must, therefore, have a good
fit with the new category and its value perception must match
the needs of the target consumer. In the case of Raymond’s, as
we saw, there was a good fit between the brand name and high
quality ready-to-wear trousers but its value perception did not
match what the buyer was looking for_ ‘great fit’.
BRAND POSITIONING
remain unchanged for some time, and the fashion line garments to be made in limited volume for one season only.
New North Star shoes have been designed to strengthen a
common value perception of comfortable fit, style, youthfulness and ‘freedom’. The brand extension has been so managed
as to forge an integrated whole in which shoes and apparel
complement one another.
The brand extension also embraces North Star accessories which
reflect the target consumer’s lifestyle-belts, socks, backpacks,
watches, Walkman type music systems.
The retail network has been expanded beyond Bata stores.
Specially designed North Star outlets, where the mood and
decor will match the North Star spirit, are being opened in all
major cities.
The goal: to make North Star apparel the top-selling brand in
the market for casual, trendy clothing.
48
LESSON 16
UNIT 4
READING MINDS: RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
BRAND MAPPING AND EXTENSION
FOR BRAND POSITIONING
Techniques for perceptual mapping
Traditionally, all product positioning (or repositioning) exercises
set off with a measurement of consumers’ perceptions of
brands in a product category. Various techniques are now
available to a researcher for measuring product positioning. Let
us concentrate on the more widely used techniques.
1. Image profile analysis
This is probably the oldest and most widely used technique for
measuring consumer perceptions of, competitive brands,
services or companies. The starting point for this analysis is the
measurement of perceptions of each brand on a 5 or 7 point
numerical scale against a series of pre-selected functional and
psychological attributes. The individual scores are then averaged
to obtain a composite mean score for each brand on different
attribute Figure the relative positions in consumer’s minds of
for
An examination of the chart provides a profile of competitive
brands and their perceived strengths and weaknesses. A further
improvement on this chart could be achieved by superimposing
the profile of the ideal brand for each attribute. An observation
of this type of chart provides useful insights about which
brand is competing against whom, and on what attribute or
attributes, and to what extent they are close to or away from the
ideal image.
However, image -profile analysis has its limitations. First, it is
difficult to plot all the brands in a single chart when the number
of competitive brands is large (e.g. toilet soaps or soft drinks).
Moreover, all the attributes considered for image perceptions
may not be equally important or independent of each other. In
other words, some of the attributes may be highly correlated
and thereby represent basically the same dimension (or factor).
This limitation can, however, be overcome by first factoranalysing the total set of attributes and reducing them to some
basic independent factors or dimensions.
2. Factor analysis
The brand image data may be collected on all variables which
could possibly have some relevance to the objective of the
study. Initially, a large set of variables (attributes) is considered.
Without going into the mathematical details of factor analysis
one can say that its prime objective is to reduce the initial set of
variables and express them as a linear combination of a small
set of independent “factors” or dimen-sions. The input data in
all factor analysis procedures are the correla-tion coefficients
between all possible pairs of original variables. A satisfactory
solution is the one which will yield the minimum number of
“factors” that conveys all the essential information , contained
in the original set of variables. Statistically speaking, the
objective becomes:
1. To reproduce as best as possible the observed correlations
among the original variables; and
2. To extract the maximum variation.
The factors thus derived will be uncorrelated to each other,
henceindependent. Moreover, since all variables can be expressed
as linear combinations of extracted factors, the coefficients of
various factors are called “factor loadings”. From this the
analysis ultimately aims to determine the “weights” (“eigenvalues”) associated with each factor. This enables us not only to
calculate the importance of each factor but also to determine the
“factor axes” corresponding to clusters of points (original
variables) including the positions of individual brands.
A masked example from the Indian instant coffee category is
provided below, with reference to the South Indian market.
List of original variables (30)
1. The most popular brand
16.Not so bitter
2. The least popular brand
17.Strong coffee taste
3. For upper-class people
18.Weak coffee taste
4. For lower-class people
19.100% pure coffee
5. For modern1. people
20. Chicory coffee
6. For conservative people
21.Best quality
7. For regular coffee drinkers
8. For occasional coffee drinkers
22. Unsatisfactory quality
23. Inexpensive coffee
9. For young people
24.Expensive coffee
10. For elderly people
25. Attractive jar
11. Imported coffee
26. Unattractive jar
12. Produced locally
long time
27. In the market for a
13. Pleasant aroma
28.Recently introduced
14. Unpleasant aroma
29.Believable advertising
15. Bitter taste
30.Unbelievable advertising
The image data were collected for three brands then available in
South India.
A factor analysis of correspondence produced four factors. We
are presenting a two-dimensional configuration of three brands
and indi-vidual variables (attributes) on two of the most
important factors which together accounted for 80% of total
variance. These are:
(a) For upper-class or lower-class people: explaining about 60%
of total variance.
(b) Young and modern/old-conservative: explaining about
20% of total variance.
Figure shows the result of such mapping. The coordinates of
each point (brand or attribute) represent their factor scores with
respect to the two major axes mentioned above. To protect
49
BRAND POSITIONING
Defining the product market
BRAND POSITIONING
confiden-tiality, the data have been disguised and brand names
have been masked.
Conclusions
(i) The quadrant formed by the two axes in which we find
Brand A can be described as representing “upper-class, young
and modem people”. It is also the geometric space which
contains some variables (attributes) with favourable factor
scores on the two axes. In other words, the brand can be said
to possess those attributes which are plotted close to
it.Thus, Brand A is perceived to be not only for modem,
young and upper-class people, it is also looked upon as, for
example, “expensive” (24), “for occasional coffee drinkers”
(8), “100% pure coffee” (19), but with a “weak coffee taste”
(18).
(ii) Brand C is also perceived to be for “modem and young
people”, but belonging to the less affluent class. It is,
moreover, perceived as a “strong coffee”(17), “preferred by
regular coffee drinkers”(7), with “believable advertising” (29),
a “chicory-blended coffee” (20), and the “most popular
brand” (1) in South India.
(iii) Brand B suffers from an all-round negative image. Despite
anattractive jar in which it was launched, it was considered
somewhat a. coffee “for old-fashioned people”.
3. Cluster analysis
Apart from image profile charts and factor analysis, another
procedure that has gained considerable popularity with market
structure analysts for determining product positioning is cluster
analysis. The objective behind this procedure is to separate
brands into groups such that each brand in a group is more like
the other brands in its group than brands falling outside the
group.In any cluster analysis procedure a measure of inter-object
(between brands or objects) similarity or dissimilarity has to be
used. The most popular concept in this regard is the Euclidean
distance between two points (brands). Although various
techniques are now available for clustering objects (brands,
attributes , people) the more frequently used approach is
hierarchical cluster analysis.
The following chart (usually called a dendrogram) illustrates a
graphical presentation of cluster analysis output . In the
example shown in Figure, consumers’ ratings were obtained on
the following attributes:
3. Maaza, Frooti
4. Horlicks, Viva, Complan (though the last is more distant
from theother two)Major attribute(s) Stimulating drink.
Refreshing drin_, fizzy, liked by the young people.
Refreshing, not fizzy, liked by the young and children.
Nourishing drink, good for children’s growth, for old and
convalescent people.Cluster analysis of this type can also be
applied to identify homogeneous groups for alternative
advertisements, brand names, package designs or any other
communication stimuli.
Multidimensional scaling
Why do some people prefer a branded soft drink to fresh fruit
juice? Why do some prefer Nirma washing powder to any other
detergent of unquestionable quality? Why do people vote for a
particular party or individual? How do boys decide their girl
friends (or vice versa)? Can these questions and others like them
relating to perceptions and preferences be systematized?
Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) is a set of techniques to
understand and measure this variety of human responses. We
will deal with MDS at some length because of its frequent use
for perceptual mapping.
Multidimensional Scaling tackles basically two problems:
1. Dimensions involved for consumer perception of objects
(products, brands, companies, services, etc.)
2. Configuration of points (of objects) in that dimensionality.
As regards dimensionality, the number can be two or more.
How-ever, for illustrative purposes, only two most important
dimensions are chosen as the resultant configuration can then
be shown graphi-cally (although in practice, MDS involves
several dimensions, and hence the name). The output of MDS
is the location of objects on the relevant dimensions and is
usually termed as perceptual mapping.
As in cluster analysis, the starting point for MDS is also some
measure of proximity between pairs of objects. These proximity measures can be expressed either as Euclidean distances or
preference (dominance) data. For both the approaches the
similarity or dis-similiarty (distances) data can be obtained in
metric (interval-scaled) or nonmetric (ordinal-scaled) measures.
For example:
(i) If the respondent is asked to indicate on a 7-point scale,
how
1. A stimulating drink
similar or dissimilar two objects are, the data are called metric.
2. A refreshing drink
(ii) On the other hand, if the respondent is asked to rank all
possible
3. A fizzy drink
4. Liked by young people
5. A nourishing drink
6. For old and convalescent people
7. Good for children’s growth
8. Liked by children
Four distinct clusters have emerged. Their groupings and
corres-ponding major attribute(s) are as under:
Product/brand
1. Tea, coffee
2. Campa Cola, Thums Up, Limca
50
pairs of objects in order of similarity (or dissimilarity), the
resultant data becomes nonmetric.
Given that an adequate number of objects and dimensions is
in-volved in MDS, both metric and nonmetric approaches are
likely to produce near-perfect solutions.
Research that yields perceptual maps of a product class also
shows up holes or vacant positions in the market. Subjectively,
these open spaces can suggest new product opportunities. They
stimulate management to develop hypotheses about new
product concepts and throw up possi-bilities as well for
repositioning old products.Preferred positions and ideal points
Mapping a market structure can help us to form hypotheses
about new product openings but they do not identify the best
positioning for a new product. To do this, we need to research
consumer preferences. What kind of product would they
‘ideally’ like? What is their most preferred combination of
attributes, otherwise termed as their ideal point?
This is done “through preference mapping.
Preference models, combined with cluster analysis, can predict
how many consumers will prefer a new product position.
Those whose preferences cluster around a particular product
position thus become a segment which is looking for a
particular combination or level of benefits. The demographic
and psychographics profiles of each cluster can be readily
determined.Urban et al. believe that the use of such preference
analysis models, although initially costly, is more effective in
identifying new product ideas with high potential. “Savings
arise from the fact that fewer concepts need to be directly tested
with consumers and better concepts are produced.”
Techniques for Preference Mapping
Image profile analysis, to which we have referred, also plots the
consumers’ ‘ideal brand’ on the basis of a given set of
attributes.Rating Analysis: A much improved and comparatively
simple method is to ask a consumer to rate brands along two
critical attributes which can be uncovered through factor
analysis-say, taste and aroma for beers-using a bi-polar scale of
5, 7 or more points, e.g.Sweet‘.Bitter Strong smelling. .Weak
smelling
Each consumer is also asked to give his ratings for his ‘ideal’
brand along these two attributes.
Using this data, a perceptual map is produced which not only
shows how near or distant the brands are from one another on
the dimen-sions, as in the perceptual maps we have seen earlier,
but also plots on the same map the ideal point of a single
consumer. When many consumers have a similar ideal point,
that becomes the preferred position of a segment.
A variation is the rank order of brands according to consumers’
preferences. A joint space computer program can be used to
show the original similarity space of the brands with a superimposition of the ‘ideal point’ of each respondent or a segment
of like-minded respondents (Wind4 and Green5).
Urban et a1. take this rating methodology further by asking the
respondent to indicate also the importance he attaches to the
at-tributes or characteristics and thus derive his preferred
position or ideal point.
Self stated importance is the name given to this model which is
undoubtedly simple, easy to administer and widely used.
However, it is relevant only for the surveyed characteristics. A
model for the perceptual dimensions underlying the characteristics would call for another survey to measure self-stated
importance on the dimensions themselves.
Preference-regression methods enable the researcher to fit
weights on the relevant attributes to reflect the respondent’s
degree of preference for the attributes in question. This is how
one cluster oflike-minded consumers emerged with a preferred
position weighted towards ‘gentleness’ and another weighted
towards ‘effectiveness’.
This method starts by measuring respondents’ rank order of
brands in a category and also their perceptions of the benefits
of the brand. By correlating rank order preference with the
benefit perceived from that brand, ‘weights’ are imputed to that
respondent for the different benefits. The respondents are then
grouped according to the similarity of their preferences and the
respective weightages to the benefits to yield ‘preferred positions’ which represent new product opportunities.
Designing new products
The methods described earlier show up preferred positions on a
perceptual map (which reflects a product category), and give us
clues on preferred attributes but do not help us in designing all
the relevant features of the new product, e.g. the package, its
price, its form (liquid or powder for a detergent) and other
features.
Conjoint analysis helps us put together the optimum combination of features to make the new product embody the
preferences of a particular segment.
Some Conjoint Analysis Applications In Marketing
A recent technique which aids many marketing decisions
through relatively simpler data collection among consumers is
Conjoint Analysis. It can be applied even by seeking only the
rank order of consumers’ preferences given to some pre
designed products/product concepts. These preference data can
then be decomposed into the trade-off values (called part worth
utilities) that the consumer assigns to each level of the salient
product attributes which define the product. The knowledge of
these ‘part worth utilities’ provides sig-nificant insights about
consumer behaviour. The same utility values can also be utilized
for the purposes of designing new products, assessing current
product market positions, target market segments and clues
regarding main communication themes for each segment.
These product designs/product concepts (often called product
stimuli) can be presented to the consumers in many forms.
This may range from product prototypes, models, photographs
to even a prose description. This choice is made on the basis of
mainly practical convenience, ease of communication and
consumers’ ability to under-stand the products through
different forms of their presentation.
Product stimuli are generated by varying the levels of product
attributes. Generally a very large number of distinct possible
product alternatives can be generated through this process. For
example, a product with four salient attributes having five
possible levels each can take 625 distinct forms. The number of
51
BRAND POSITIONING
LESSON 17
NEW PRODUCT OPPORTUNITIES
BRAND POSITIONING
product stimuli presented to the consumers during the survey
is, therefore, pruned to a manage-able size by using another
statistical technique called Fractional Factorial Design of
Experiment. Through this technique, the mini-mum possible
number of product stimuli and their specifications can be
obtained which can then be used for eliciting consumers’
preference responses.
Notes
52
UNIT 5
CASE STUDIES
capture the niche market.
From making its latest international launches available in India
to offering zero per cent finance schemes to make the category
more affordable for the Indian youth, Swiss watch company
LVMH Watches and Jewellery (makers of Tag Heuer and
Christian Dior watches), is going all out to reach its niche target
market.
The company’s focus is clearly on popularising the segment,
while it is fully aware that profits or even breaking even are
distant thoughts. “We believe that the Indian market has
tremendous potential; therefore, from day one of operations in
this country our effort has been to popularize the segment. We
are not expecting to make profits for at least the next four-five
years,” says Ravi Thakran, Managing Director (Asia-Pacific),
LVMH Watches.
He says that the biggest challenge in India is to convince
consumers to buy luxury watches in India. The Indian consumers, says Thakran, have the capability and desire to shell out
money to possess a Tag Heuer or a Christian Dior but they
prefer to buy it in Europe or Singapore or Dubai, as they feel
that it is cheaper abroad. Moreover, most of them feel that the
latest launches take a while to come to India. After-sales service
is also a major concern.
“We therefore entered the Indian market with a promise that we
would ensure that our new collections are launched in India
simultaneously, at a price which would be equal to or even lesser
than world prices. At the same time we also promised to
recreate the international shopping experience in India,” says
Thakran.
The company has lived up to its promise of bringing in all its
latest launches simultaneously to the Indian market, the latest
being Christian Dior’s international Spring 2004 range, Girly
Dior. With prices between Rs 30,500 and Rs 44,000, which
Thakran claims are on par with the international prices.
He says that offering international pricing in the Indian market
is a tough promise to live up to as the customs duties on
foreign watches in India is a whopping 65 per cent, which is the
highest in the world.
Marketing strategy
Apart from making sure that all its latest worldwide launches
are available in India simultaneously and at international prices,
LVMH Watches and Jewellery is also into a lot of promotion
such as organising photo-shoots with lifestyle magazines such
as Cosmopolitan and Femina.
The company has also signed up Indian celebrities such as Shah
Rukh Khan to endorse the Tag Heuer brand, while Christian
Dior is being endorsed by model Yana Gupta.
One of its most recent initiatives to increase the penetration of
its watches in the Indian market was the launch of a zero per
cent interest finance scheme for the Tag Heuer brand. Though
the initial response to the scheme has been lukewarm, Thakran
is confident it will pick up in due course. “This scheme is
especially meant for youth who can now aspire to possess a
brand like Tag Heuer through easy instalments,” he says. The
company also plans to extend this scheme for the Christian
Dior brand, for which it is negotiating with several banks.
Retail strategy
On the retail front, the company’s strategy has been to associate
itself only with upmarket multibrand stores in order to
maintain the exclusivity of its products. In Chennai, for
instance, the company is associated with Helvetica, which only
retails high-end luxury watch brands.
“At the same time we have also invested a lot in training the
staff at the counters so that the shoppers can get an international shopping experience,” says Thakran. “Each of our
shop-in-shops also offer full-fledged after-sales service,” he
adds.
The luxury watch market
The luxury watch market in India, according to Thakran, is
estimated at Rs 400 crore and is growing at an impressive 20 per
cent per year. Referring to the sales of Christian Dior watches,
Thakran says that the company has already sold 2,000 watches in
the last one year and hopes to sell 10,000 watches per year by
2006.
Ashok Doshi, owner of the Chennai-based multibrand watch
retail store Helvetica, says the luxury watch segment is growing.
53
BRAND POSITIONING
LVMH tirelessly works on its plans to
BRAND POSITIONING
“The Indian consumer over the last one year has been showing
interest in possessing premium international brands and
therefore enquiries about these watches have also increased.”
He says that while sports brands such as Tag Heuer are a rage
among the youngsters between the age group of 25 and 35, the
35-plus consumers generally opt for classical watches such as
Omega and Cartier. And LVMH’s goal is to boost the luxury
watch category through various marketing and promotional
exercises. The company is also going to shortly launch two
more new watches from its international portfolio — Fendi and
Zenith — to give the Indian consumers further choice in the
luxury watch segment.
Levi’s new clothes
After eight years of a rather uneventful stint in the Indian
apparel market, Levi Strauss, the global jeans wear behemoth, is
stirring up. Ironically, it comes at a time when the company has
not exactly been on top of the latest denim wave to grip the
domestic market.
Levi Strauss expects sales of about one million units of
clothing this year. With three brands — Levi’s, Sykes and
Dockers — rolled out in the market, the company has projected
a leap in volume growth to five million units in five years. The
company, with sales topping $4.3 billion in 2001, hopes that
China and India will lead the volume spurt in the Asia-Pacific
region.
The US major, which invented jeans 150 years ago, has been in
correction mode since 2000, after realising that it has failed to
connect with the increasingly younger Indian market. The
company has dropped prices, revisited retail strategy, changed
the creative agency and worked around with the media plan in
recent times in a bid to get its act right. “Directionally, we are
making the right moves now,” says Shumone Jaya Chatterjee,
Director (Marketing), Levi Strauss India Pvt Ltd.
It is estimated that Levi’s, the flagship brand, has sold roughly
six billion pairs of jeans worldwide and remains the most
54
recognisable apparel brand in the world. However, its rivals in
India are acutely aware of the fact that the brand has struggled
for a grip after making an entry into the market in 1995. The
total Indian jeanswear market is pegged at around 24 million
pairs annually. In this, the value segment, priced below Rs 600,
which to date remains fragmented and largely unbranded,
accounts for 14 million pairs. The standard segment, priced
between Rs 600 and Rs 899, has sales of about 8.7 million. This
leaves the premium end of the market, priced above Rs 900,
with 1.3 million units.
While apportioning the blame for the uninspiring show of
Levi’s in India, it must also be mentioned that the industry
trends, at several critical junctures, seemed to work against the
brand. It made a rather imperious foray into the local market at
a time when denim fashion ebbed in the late ’90s. In the last 18
months, when denim has returned to the Indian shores as
fashion apparel, the main beneficiaries of the volume spurt
happened to be those brands operating in the standard
segment. In the current financial year, this segment has reportedly seen 12 per cent growth on a fairly sizable existing base.
In fact, Madura Garments, which entered the jeans market in
April this year, claims that its brand, SF Jeans, positioned in the
standard market has been on a roll. Sanjeev Mohanty, Brand
Head of SF Jeans, says the brand will break even in the next
financial year and turn profitable in the third year. If it happens,
SF jeans will emerge as the fastest jeanswear brand to make
profits in India, outclassing Lee, which reported profits in its
fourth year of operations.
Levi’s Chatterjee says the hype surrounding the return of denim
has not resulted in any major sales upsurge in the premium
segment. Some industry observers even talk of how Levi’s —
which claims a 32 per cent share of the premium and 73 per cent
share of the super-premium segments — almost missed the
trend in favour of jeans until it came out with the ‘Low Rise
Collection’ in April this year. Chatterjee says Low Rise has
perked up the premium jeanswear segment, which is currently
growing at around 10 per cent. “We see the buzz it created
helping us as the product is only beginning to be tested by the
mainstream market,” he adds.
Following the drop in entry-level consumer price, which stood
at Rs 1,400 in the late ’90s, Levi’s has regrouped its local market
— the upper-end jeanswear segment — into two. The offerings
that are priced between Rs 900 and Rs 1,399 constitute the Red
Tab range of premium jeans, while the products priced above
Rs 1,400 are the Red Loop range of super-premium offerings.
The Red Loop range will showcase the cutting edge global
fashion in jeans and is targeted mainly at select quarters of the
market. The company has also realigned the marketing strategy
for the brand in recent months, coinciding with the launch of
the Low Rise collection. “The growth was not happening and
the money was a bit scarce. So, we had to get the act right before
investing further,” says Chatterjee.
The marketing re-orientation received a big push when it finally
managed to come out with a winner in advertising for Low
Rise. “The communication has improved and the Low Rise
campaign (`Low Rise — Dangerously Low’ by JWT) was the
only success which they tasted in about six quarters,” says
Mohanty of SF Jeans. Chatterjee says the company was getting
portfolio of denim and non-denim businesses. This should
help us tide over the fashion cycles,” says Chatterjee.
The improving economic sentiments, recovery of the technology sector and the BPO sector are factors that could help brands
such as Levi’s, Sykes and Dockers place high bets on the
business. And on that hinges the company’s projection of five
million units sales within five years.
Notes
55
BRAND POSITIONING
the feedback that the advertising for Levi’s “went above many
people”. “With Low Rise, we have hit a campaign that is
simple, classy and very much Levi’s. The product is the hero,”
Chatterjee quips. In its media plan, Levi’s now focuses mainly
on print including premium magazines. The reinvigorated
marketing, along with the price drop effected sometime ago,
seem to have helped the brand to establish that elusive connect
with the youth.
Explains Chatterjee: “A couple of years ago, only 45 per cent of
our sales came from people aged below 25 years. Now, the same
age group accounts for nearly 71 per cent of our sales.” Some
imaginative promotional efforts have also helped this cause. For
instance, the brand tied-up with Café Coffee Day to promote
Low Rise, with a contest — `6" Below’ (Six Inches Below).
While this clicked instantly, the sponsorship of the Great
Indian Rock, a two-day annual event held in Mumbai and Delhi
to identify genuine young talent in the domestic rock music
scene, has also helped. So, as Levi’s begins to flex muscles in an
increasingly attractive market, what might shake up the industry
is its proposed foray into the value segment priced below Rs
600. Levi Strauss is making plans to launch its new mass
marketed jeans label, Levi’s Signature, in the Indian market.
Chatterjee says it is at least 18 months away. “We are talking
about a mass market of about 2,000 outlets (as against 400
now) and a product price point of about Rs 500. It requires an
entirely different model of sourcing (the company has a current
vendor base of 10), marketing and retailing,” he adds. While
Chatterjee is betting on Levi Strauss’ inherent strengths of
consumer insight, innovation, product development and
marketing to pull it off, industry rivals remain doubtful. “The
vast value segment of the apparel market is a dicey proposition.
It is more akin to the FMCG model. The Indian companies
such as Arvind (with Newport Jeans) and Madura Garments
(with Peter England) have struggled to set up a profitable
branded business in this segment,” says the head of a prominent apparel company.
Even as the success of Signature is key to the company’s
emergence as a volume player in the Indian market, Chatterjee
says the company’s non-denim businesses also have a role to
play. At present, almost 65 per cent of Levi Strauss’ business in
the country comes from denim. But that ratio could change if
the emerging fashion trends in Europe hit India in a big way.
Chatterjee says there are signs that denim might hit a plateau in
the coming quarters (not to be mistaken with plunging sales as
mills across the world continue to work on denim to prevent
another precipitous slide as witnessed in the ’90s) and street
wear could emerge a hot contender. This has prompted the
company to forecast a 100 per cent jump in sales for Levi’s
Sykes, targeted at the school and college-going teen crowd.
Cargos, three-fourths and military pants are currently hogging
the limelight in the fashion capitals of Europe. Levi Strauss
India is waiting to storm the domestic market and has already
announced that it is boosting the portfolio of Sykes with
‘Reversibles’ — clothes that can be worn in different ways and
combinations. Meanwhile, Dockers, the casual workwear or
khakis, is making a return after it faded away with the dotcom
bust of 2000-01. “We are perhaps the only apparel company in
the country — maybe along with Arvind — to have a robust
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